


The Stars Rewritten

by SinisterScribe



Category: Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Action & Romance, Amanda has no self preservation, Dragons In Space, F/M, Humans are space orcs, Humans worry Sarek greatly, I call this MeetCuteBoom, I cant write a normal romance guys, I have made them my own, I wrote this to the Terminator and Witcher Soundtracks, Implied/Referenced Torture, It could be canon, Pinky promise, Sorry Not Sorry, accidents happen when you got a lotta teeth, fic is written, fight me about it, i do what i like, matriarch dinosaurs in space, particularly his human, referenced Sareks A Plus Parenting, seriously this guy will bond with anyone, the Gorn feature heavily, time and space shenanigans, will not be abandoned like others, you don't know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:22:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 86,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23707555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SinisterScribe/pseuds/SinisterScribe
Summary: I'M BACK.And all it took was a pandemic...seriously folks, stay safe right now. Stay in and read fanfic!So, I'm a whore for Discovery and have watched it to death and I have always been intrigued by Sarek and Amanda but fell in love with how they were portrayed as Michael and Spock's parents.So here we have a possible scenario as to how they met.Fair warning, the greatest thing about StarTrek is that I COULD NOT write anything crazier than actual canon is.
Relationships: Amanda Grayson/Sarek
Comments: 260
Kudos: 276
Collections: Humans Are Space Orcs





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is complete. Written in its entirety so it CERTAINLY won't suffer from years long blocks like my others have. This is how I've decided to write from now on which is why I've been so absent for so long. 
> 
> Let me know if you want to read more. I mean, I did spend all this time writing this stuff. 
> 
> Enjoy!

**Chapter 1 – Boy Meets Girl...It Devolves From There**

**_Federation Headquarters…_ **

Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan swept in through the main entrance of the Federation Headquarters with a billowing snap of his robes. He did not move with a hurried pace but rather used his long legs to their full extension. His human aide trailed in his wake, clutching pads to their chest. If one did not know better about Vulcans, they might have said that irritation rolled from the Ambassador in waves.

Even though many of the occupants of the Federation building _did_ know better, they still all but dived out of the Ambassador’s way as he powered past them towards the bank of elevators.

“Ambassador, I have taken the liberty of calling ahead. The Chair of Education knows that the meeting will be pushed a few minutes…” The aide, a human that refused gendered pronouns and apparently to account for traffic, was cut off when Sarek raised his hand to indicate that he had heard the excuse and found it irrelevant.

Sarek strode straight for the elevators and saw a human female waiting before him. She had already pressed the control to summon the elevator and stepped into it without even looking up from her padd when the doors swished apart in front of her.

“Hold the elevator.” Sarek’s voice rang out across the marble floors and walls of the building’s cavernous atrium. He didn’t so much shout as project with purpose.

The doors were closing and Sarek offered himself a quick internal debate at the logic of running to catch the elevator when another could be summoned in a matter of minutes. He was already late, after all, why cause further indignity by running for an elevator car?

A hand clapped on the edge of one of the doors right before they closed and halted their progress.

Sarek continued at his hastened walking clip and stepped through the doors as soon as they widened enough to accommodate his shoulders. He turned, robes flaring around his legs as he did so and his eyes met those of his aide.

The aide, Sam, faltered in their half jog following the ambassador and the hesitation cost them their place in the lift as the doors closed once more. Sarek did not reach out to halt their progress on Sam’s account, they could take the next elevator.

Sarek let a slow breath leak from his lungs through his nose and centred himself firmly. He pressed the button for his required floor with perhaps more force than was necessary and attempted to calm his physical stress response.

Sarek rarely had to exert such control over himself but the day had already been a long one with the last minute change in itinerary, the human madness of _traffic_ , an incident on Vulcan that needed his attention, compounding an already delicate family matter that he had been doing his level best to keep removed from and now…being _late_ of all things.

Sarek stiffened a micron when a delicate snort came from just behind him.

“Man, folks who say that your people are emotionless have obviously never actually paid attention.”

Sarek twisted to see the human female behind him. She did not look up from tapping on the screen of her padd, a lopsided smirk tugging at her dark lips, and continued as if they were already acquainted.

“You’re welcome, by the by.”

Sarek blinked, not entirely sure how to react to humans at the best of times and further perplexed by one that wouldn’t even look up from their device to acknowledge his presence.

“Thank you.” Gratitude was something he was capable of expressing relatively easy to humans. It came with a standard verbal couplet, after all. He draped his arms behind his back and collected himself more firmly. “For holding the elevator open.”

“Not a problem.” The woman continued to read from her padd and Sarek turned away, assuming the interaction was done with.

He was…curious about her reaction. Not only did humans tend to be a little –hmm- awed, by his stature (physically if nothing else, he had a head and shoulders on most humans) but they typically babbled at him to cover their emotional nervous reaction or were overly solicitous due to his ambassadorial status. Complete indifference was a new one.

Sarek reviewed the glance he had taken of her rather than turn to look at her again.

She was small for a human female, though that could be accounted for by the way she propped herself negligently against the wall of the lift carriage. She was dressed somewhat incongruously for the Federation Headquarters in a canvas jacket that had been repaired several times, a wrinkled white linen shirt, many pocketed tactical trousers of a deep grey and matching boots that were still scuffed with the reddened dust that could have easily come from the deserts of Vulcan. She held not the glass panel thin padds that most humans favoured but a clunkier reinforced version favoured by those in Starfleet for their ability to survive being hurled across an engineering room or dropped down a Jefferies tube.

Her hair was a deep brown black in colour, pulled back into a messy knot on top of her head. Her eyes very pale and her complexion was on the lighter end of the human spectrum. Her bone structure had the typically rounder features that humans had though she was petite as human females could be and that delicacy was reflected in the straight profile of her nose and the long lashes that framed her eyes. The lines of her cheekbones conversely struck him as stark and he wondered if she was undernourished. Not something that typically happened to humans since the founding of the Federation unless they were in dire circumstances.

A lanyard hung around her neck and Sarek deliberately made himself appear completely composed. He now realised that the credentials he had seen scrolling across the transparent aluminium there were those of a member of the Federation Press Corps.

Ah.

Sarek found the human notion of journalism to be somewhat…troubling. It was different on Vulcan (as were a multitude of things). The human Press seemed to enjoy taking comments out of context and fictionalising reality into ‘stories’ that were more dramatic or interesting to their audience than reality apparently was.

He had been warned by his predecessor to avoid speaking to the Press unless given a statement by the human Public Relations office. If he had to speak to them at all then he should attempt to keep his answers as succinct as possible to avoid the possibility of ‘misquoting’ or having his words taken out of context.

Sarek endeavoured to remain silent for the remainder of their journey together to the fifteenth floor where she was to alight.

A plan that no doubt would have been easily attainable had the lights over their head not flickered and the elevator had juddered to a halt.

The human journalist pushed herself from the wall, shoving her padd into her pocket in one smooth move and stood level with Sarek. She tilted her head back to look at the readout above the doors. Her jaw clenched when she saw that they were caught between floors. Her dark lips twisted in what he took to be displeasure and eyes that were as pale as the Californian summer sky seemed to flash.

“What the fuck.”

Sarek did hope that question was rhetorical as he had no idea how to respond. He understood the last to be an expletive but he was not sure in which of the myriad of the word’s possible contexts she had meant to use it. He did hope she wasn’t somehow propositioning him.

She stepped forward again and ran her hands over the panels beside the elevator doors. She hummed to herself and bent to rifle in one of the many pockets in her tactical trousers.

Sarek’s chin tilted upward a fraction when she pulled a small implement from a pocket and unfolded it into what appeared to be a knife.

Sarek watched her carefully for any sign of aggression but surmised that the knife was more of a tool than a weapon as she turned it upon the panel rather than even turn to look at him. She worked the small blade (which she would have to work _very_ hard to injure him with, he realised) beneath the edge of the panel and prised it open. She hummed when she saw the rows of crystal data chips and reached inside with barely a hesitation.

“Should you do that?”

The journalist twisted to look at him, seeming to remember that he was there for the first time and her mouth twisted to one side.

“Yes?”

“Those chips control the function of the elevator.”

“Probably.” She nodded.

“So, by extension, one might surmise that they control the magnetic locks that are preventing us from plummeting to a messy demise ten floors down.”

“Skittish for a Vulcan, aren’t you?” She raised an eyebrow at him. She smirked at whatever she thought she saw in his face in response. “Relax, I’m reaching for the internal communication line. I can plug it into my padd and contact maintenance. Let them know where we are.”

“Would they not already be aware?” Sarek was loathe to let her play with the controls of the carriage they found themselves in. Particularly when she appeared to have no real idea as to what she was doing.

“Eventually, sure, but you hear that hum?” She pointed up as if to indicate the sound that –now that Sarek focussed- he could in fact hear. “That’s not main power, that’s backup. This power fault, whatever it is, has overtaken the main part of the building in the least. The maintenance folks are going to have a lot on their plate. I just want to move us up the list a bit.”

“If the power outage is wider than this one elevator then it would be illogical for us to divert resources from those whose need may be greater than ours.”

“This is Federation Headquarters,” the woman drawled at him, “I really don’t think there’s any kind of life or death situation going on. Nothing ever happens here.”

“If that is the case then why does the Press Corps have a whole floor dedicated to their presence?” The question from Sarek was genuine but he realised only after he had voiced it that she may well take it as an insult to her profession.

A profession he did not think would be difficult to insult and she must surely be used to it from anyone that valued truth and rationalism but there was no need to agitate her when they were in close quarters and she was holding a weapon. Albeit a small one.

Her response was not expected.

“That is a very good question, friend. You let me know if you ever get an answer to it. I’ll be sure to use it in the next argument I have with my editor.” She turned away and reached into the open panel, extracting a fibre optic cable and stowing her knife with her free hand so that she could retrieve her padd. She connected one to the other. “Hold on.”

Sarek took that to be a euphemism as he had no need to hold onto anything and he did not think the railings in the elevator would do him much good in the event of needing an anchor point anyway.

He settled instead for waiting whilst she spoke to maintenance over the communication hard line provided for such instances. The conversation was short and succinct and –he felt- not entirely truthful.

“Um, hello? We’re in elevator number four? We’re caught between floors eleven and twelve?”

Sarek blinked, attempting to discern where her confident tone of voice had disappeared to. Why had everything become a question? He studied her as she listened intently to the response from the maintenance department.

“Yeah, I get that but I’m with the Vulcan Ambassador and, you know…” She made her voice smaller and it even quavered a bit. “Oh, no, he’s not annoyed, Vulcans don’t get annoyed, but I don’t like small spaces and I really- -I would just like to know that someone is on their way as soon as they can be.”

Sarek’s eyes narrowed a fraction as he studied her profile. He could not discern the tone of her voice or why she had employed it. Her facial expression did not match her verbal hesitance or apprehension.

“Okay…okay, thank you _so_ much. Yes. I’ll try to remain calm.” She laughed at whatever was said to her. A giggle that Sarek found somehow at odds with her general demeanour. “Thank you so much. Okay. Buh-bye.”

She pulled the padd away from her ear and tapped the screen with her thumb to end the call. She hummed deep in her throat, disconnected the cable and then stowed the device into its pocket again.

“Well, shit.” She turned back to Sarek. “Power’s out all over the building. They don’t know what caused it. Apparently they’ve been upgrading the wiring and the like. Anything other than hard line communication is down so…they’ll get here when they get here.”

“Less than ideal.” Sarek noted with a tilt of his head. It could easily have been worse.

“The magnetic brakes are on a failsafe system that’s cut off from anything else. They jam into place in the event of a power interruption and can’t be remotely deactivated until main power is restored.” The woman dropped down to the floor to sit and stretched her legs out in front of her, crossing them at the ankle. “They suggest that we make ourselves comfortable.”

Sarek looked at the corner she waved to negligently with one hand and realised that she intended for him to join her in sitting on the floor.

“Is the floor comfortable?” Sarek asked her.

“Better than standing.” She shrugged.

Sarek considered a moment more and scrolled through his memories on human etiquette. It was considered polite to sit when others sat unless those of a higher social or political status stood. Which he supposed inferred that she believed them to be, at least, equals. That or she did not care for such manners. Sarek was unsure if that meant that her indifference meant he could remain standing. The core of human etiquette seemed to be to accommodate the comfort of others at the expense of one’s own.

Sarek repressed the urge to exhale more deeply than was standard for him and examined the patch of floor she had indicated. He swept his robes aside and lowered himself down to settle into a kneeling pose on the carpet. It meant that he towered over her so they were not precisely level but he refused to all but sprawl on the floor in a mimic of her own pose.

“Hungry?” She looked up at him, her hand delved into the inner workings of her much used jacket.

“No.” Sarek answered with honesty before he thought of etiquette once more. He attempted to soften it when her mouth quirked in an expression he could not name. “We do not know how long we will be detained here and the human need for sustenance is greater than that of Vulcans.”

“I’ve got plenty.” She smiled, pulling out two small packages as if in illustration. She tossed one at him without further warning.

Sarek’s hand snapped up and he caught it ten centimetres from his chest.

“Nice reflexes.” She nodded and tore open her package revealing it to be some kind of food bar that smelled of… _chocolate_.

Sarek looked down at the package with more interest. He had heard of chocolate and its effect on his people but he had never imbibed. He did not think it wise to do so now but there was no reason that he could not keep the gifted food for later. Sarek set the bar down on the floor (it declared itself to be Belgian Chocolate and Raspberry Brownie flavour, whatever that meant) by his knee and set his hands on his thighs.

“Thank you.” He inclined his chin in a nod, remembering his manners this time.

“Of course.” She shrugged. “We better do introductions. I’m Amanda.”

“Sarek of Shi’Kahr.” He nodded to her again, though judging by her earlier conversation with the engineers, she knew who he was.

“Do Vulcans have family names?”

“Yes though humans tend to find them difficult to pronounce in Federation Standard.”

“Try me.” Amanda bit into her own chocolate bar and considered him as she chewed.

“It would take several minutes to translate into syllables you are familiar with.” Sarek said rather than give his name. Though she did not miss the way his gaze dropped to the credentials hanging from her neck.

“Ah, don’t want to talk to a hackette.” She smirked. “Worry not, Ambassador, I’m most definitely not going to find anything you say newsworthy.” Amanda bit into her chocolate bar with perhaps more ferocity than it warranted and occupied herself with eating.

“I am unfamiliar with that word.” Sarek confessed.

He did not usually indulge in the human pastime of ‘smalltalk’ but he found Amanda to be…intriguing. She acted as he did not expect of humans in general and as it would be considered rude to ignore her and meditate within the elevator with her not three feet from him…his options were limited.

“Which word?” Amanda ran her tongue over her teeth to make sure there was no chocolate clinging to them.

“Hackette.”

“Mm.” Amanda nodded her head up with a kick of her chin. “It’s a word for a journo. A journalist.”

“I have never heard it before.”

“It’s an insult.” Amanda lifted a shoulder in a negligent shrug. “Bet I can pronounce your name. It can’t be harder than anything Slavic.”

“Why would you insult your chosen profession?” Sarek asked her instead.

“Because it’s not my chosen profession.”

Sarek tilted his head, silently requesting that she expand. She heaved a sigh and waved her chocolate bar in one hand as she elaborated.

“The Federation Press Corps is not journalism; it’s stenography. Nothing newsworthy _ever_ happens in the Federation HQ. Ever. If I wanted to take notes for a living then I’d be a receptionist but –you know- I went to school for twenty two years and I kinda want to use my brain so…never mind.”

“Should I surmise that you would prefer to be…in the field?”

“Surmise away, Ambassador.” Amanda nodded with a wry tilt of her head.

“Is this a change in career path for you?”

“Rather a short sudden stop.” Amanda snorted in amusement that seemed primarily directed inward.

“Why not search for other means of employment if this is not to your preference?”

Amanda finished her chocolate bar and looked down at the wrapper as she folded the foil into increasingly smaller triangles until it was a tightly bound prism. This she spun on its points between her fingers. She considered his question a moment.

“Illogical human attachment, I suppose.”

“I had surmised as much.” Sarek nodded and listened intently when she laughed. It was an…intriguing sound. A genuine laugh rather than the _giggle_ she had adopted for the engineers on the comms.

“So, if you won’t tell me your name and you don’t want to divulge any state or intergalactic secrets to a scribe like me, what are we going to talk about?”

Sarek considered her question and did not bother to ask if silence was an option. He had already surmised that this was not the case.

“Perhaps a mutual and equitable exchange?”

“Oh?”

“I will answer a question that you pose to me if you will answer that same question in turn about yourself.”

Amanda cocked her head to the side and smiled broadly.

“Very clever. Alright, I’m game. Where did you grow up?”

“I was born and raised on the outskirts of the city of Shi’Kahr on my family’s ancestral estate.” Sarek told her nothing that she could not have searched for in any public database and her smile told him that she knew as much. He raised an eyebrow at her, waiting for reciprocation.

“Alright, I was born in Poland, we –my family and I- moved to the States when I was three and settled down in Washington State. Small town called Gravity Falls. What is Shi’Kahr like?”

“What is the wind like?”

Amanda laughed and Sarek found himself oddly pleased by the sound and having won it from her. A strange reaction but he supposed not unpleasant.

“What is it physically like? The geography of the place.”

“Shi’Kahr is as much of Vulcan is. A mostly arid desert. The ground is comprised of black mineral sands of a similar makeup to Earth’s haematite and dusty red clay. The vegetation is sparse but primarily of a more blue green than that of Earth’s chlorophyll filled arboreal specimens. Most plants have sharp shaped leaves and bear little fruit. There are deep wells of water in Shi’Kahr that have supported its populace for millennia. The winds never change in Shi’Kahr though every aspect of the landscape has a specific current that has shaped the land as the eons have passed. Every year carves the province deeper into the ground on which it stands. It is a place of red and gold. The air is hot and heavy to human lungs and visitors remark that it is a desolate place.”

“Though not to you.”

It was not a question but Sarek dipped his head in a nod anyway. He waved his hand to her to indicate it was her turn and she grinned.

“Gravity Falls sounds like the polar opposite of Shi’Kahr. It’s a small town, population is only a few thousand. It’s on the coast at the most western edge but spreads inland towards the mountains, settled in the roots of the Redwoods. Redwoods are the largest trees on Earth, they’re taller than a lot of buildings, even now with our modern architecture. They’re thousands of years old, older than humanity I think. There are rivers and lakes everywhere, the water is crystal clear and freezing cold, fresh off the glacier. In the summer it’s hot and humid and ideal for surfing. In the winter the snow can drift as high as the roof of the house. Everything is green, everywhere. A thousand hues in a thousand more shades. The sky yawns wide and it’s the whitest blue you’ve never seen.”

“Then it is similar in shade to your eyes?”

Amanda blinked, clearly not having expected that line of questioning and Sarek could not think why. Her eyes were a unique shade of pale blue, only clearly discernible from the white sclera of her eye due to the darker ring of cobalt blue that circled her irises.

“Uh…I’ve always been told they were ice or laser blue.”

“That seems inaccurate. I would not attribute a lifeless metaphor to the colour.” Sarek noted. He thought her eyes worthy of remark perhaps because they were so unusual in his own people. Vulcans tended to favour blacks and browns in hair and eye colour.

“Oh…kay.” Amanda blinked, her long lashes framing her eyes that seemed a little wider than they had been. “Uh, how do you like Earth so far?”

“Have you ever visited Vulcan?”

“Nope.”

“Then, as per our arrangement, I cannot answer this question as I cannot ask you it in return.”

“Right.” Amanda huffed a breath in the shape of a laugh. “I’m getting schooled on interviewing by a Vulcan. A new low. Okay. How about…do you have a pet?”

“Vulcans do not have pets in the same manner that humans do. We do not pack bond in the same way, though we will occasionally take on companion animals if the match is a fitting one.”

“Okay. Do you have a companion animal?”

“Yes. A sehlat shares my home of occasion. He is named I-Chaya.” At her slight frown, Sarek expanded on his answer. “A sehlat is a feline of some prodigious size. I believe similar to that of an Earth leopard. They have a broad build, short and powerful limbs, elongated canines that protrude when their mouth is closed and usually have a red to gold coat that helps them blend with the deserts of Vulcan.”

“A…sabre-toothed tiger? You have a pet smilodon?”

“I am unfamiliar with this species.”

Amanda pulled her padd from her pocket and connected it to the building’s network. The connection wasn’t great but she managed an image search for a sabre-tooth tiger. She turned the screen so that Sarek might see. She had selected an image that showed the primitive feline stalking a rather unfortunate human armed only with a spear and a bewildered expression.

“These are…local to Washington State?”

“No. They’re extinct. Went out with the last ice age. But a sehlat looks like that?”

“More compact, their ears are tufted and they have a darker underbelly rather than paler but –yes- they are approximately the same.”

“Huh.” Amanda nodded and considered a moment. She volunteered before he was forced to ask. “I have a dog. Well, I think he’s a dog. He’s a mixed breed. A rescue. He used to be called Jawbreaker but I renamed him to Tank. He’s my boy.” Amanda’s affection for her companion was open and honest. She swiped through her padd and then turned it so he could see a picture of the animal in question.

Sarek blinked when confronted with the apex predator that appeared in the photograph to be attempting to sit upon Amanda’s lap even though its size dwarfed her. Its fur was a steely black brindle patterning to white on its belly. White toes adorned each paw that could have spanned Amanda’s face. Pale golden eyes looked directly into the camera lens from above parted jaws that were surely wide enough to have crushed Amanda’s skull with a single crunch had the animal but turned its head and bit down. Amanda in the photograph was laughing, seemingly delighted with the animal engulfing her in its shadow, her fingers buried in its thick fur and her smile nearly as broad as the ‘dog’s.

“This is a pet?”

“Yup. That’s Tank. He’s pretty big but he’s a teddy bear. Wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

“Even if he accidentally rolled onto them?” Sarek raised an eyebrow and could not fathom why a genuine concern caused Amanda to laugh with her head tilted back in amusement.

“Well, there was that time when he ran into a truck and nearly totalled it but usually he’s pretty good about knowing his own strength. I think there’s some pitbull in him. They’re a really friendly breed.”

“Do you refer to his genetics or may he have perhaps eaten a smaller canine?”

Amanda laughed again, seemingly amused by Sarek’s concern for her welfare in keeping what was clearly an apex predator in her home.

“He’s a good boy. He goes everywhere with me.”

“Not here though.” Sarek wished to be certain. He would like to be prepared if this animal may be roaming the halls unattended.

“No. He’s banned. He ate somebody’s shoe and they got a little…irrational about the whole thing.”

“Was their irrationality in connection to their foot still residing within the shoe at the time of consumption?”

Amanda looked him dead in the eye as hers narrowed.

“…maybe.”

“I had thought it was an exaggeration when I was informed that humans will bond with almost anything they come across but my first hand observations continue to prove my hypotheses without merit.”

“We’re a friendly bunch.” Amanda shrugged.

“When you are not waging war, acting irrationally, leading with emotion rather than logic or continuing to delve deeper and deeper into space with ill regard for your preparedness for such an endeavour?”

“For sure.” Amanda shrugged again. “We’ve always been like that. There was sixty years between the first manned flight and the first flight into space. We’re perfect pursuit predators but have been trying to sprint everywhere since we came down out of the trees. We don’t live as long as you guys and we’ve got stuff to do and things to see. Gotta go fast.”

“Humans are very complicated.” Sarek noted.

“Yeah. Even other humans think that about each other so…I wouldn’t worry too tough about it.” Amanda swept a strand of dark hair away from a high cheekbone. “And we haven’t been engaged in a protracted war for…”

Amanda went very – _very-_ still when the muted sound of weapons fire reached her in the elevator. She hissed a slow breath out through her teeth.

Her and her big mouth. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we find out what's going on outside the elevator.

**Chapter 2 – In Which There is Drama**

Amanda shot to her feet so fast that her scar twinged in protest over her hip. She clapped her hand to the wound instinctively and hissed a sound of pain even as she strained to be sure she had actually heard what she had thought she had heard.

Three pops in quick succession followed by a muted _thoom_ of an explosion in triplicate.

“Shhhhhit!” Amanda hissed and looked down at the Ambassador who watched her in silent query. He obviously had no idea what he was hearing. “Get up. Can you lift me?”

Sarek rose to his feet, his gaze raking her in blatant but impersonal assessment and he dipped his chin in that low nod of his.

“I believe so.”

“Great. We need to get out of here. Help me with the doors.”

“I do not believe…”

“The building is under attack. That sound?” Amanda pointed at the ceiling of the elevator to indicate the dull sound of distant weapons firing. “That’s a portable bunker buster. Three compression rounds fired in quick succession. One takes out energy shielding, another the wall and the third the armoured plating beyond. Believe me when I tell you that you don’t want to see what happens when one of those goes off in an enclosed space with two organics trapped inside it.”

“Bunker buster.” Sarek tilted his head back, considering the sound. “You are certain?”

“Intimately so.” Amanda had her knife out again and she was prising up one of the other wall panels. She found what she was looking for and pulled out what appeared to be two handles on suction cups.

She clapped one handle to one of the doors and the other onto the second. She set her shoulders and began to pull.

“Allow me.” Sarek herded her out of the way, gripped the handles in his own hands and wrenched the doors apart with a much greater ease than she would have.

“Thanks.” Amanda leaned around him to see that they were just over halfway between two floors.

The bulk of the opening showed the concrete of the supports between floors. There was a bare sliver of the lower doors visible but perhaps a space wide enough for them to escape onto the floor above. Sarek calculated that his broader bulk should be able to fit through the gap though he would have to remove the thicker material of his outer robes to do so.

“Think you can fit?” Amanda asked as she removed her worn jacket, her Press credentials and tugged her crushed shirt up over her head and off. She wore a tank top beneath for which Sarek was grateful.

He was not accustomed to being in such close proximity with an unfamiliar female, let alone one that was disrobing, but needs must.

“I believe so. Can we use the handles to open the outer doors also?” Sarek shrugged his outer robes from his shoulders leaving him in his lighter tunic and trousers. It was cool to him in the temperature that humans preferred but he would adjust. 

“Unless you’ve got a crowbar in those robes of yours?” Amanda was already unclamping the handles from the inner doors and stretching up to attach them to the outer doors of the elevator shaft.

“Not this set.” Sarek took the handles from her and reached more easily to clamp them in place. It took more of an effort, but he managed to part those doors as well.

“Can you see anything?”

Sarek reached up to grip the lip of the floor above and pulled himself up to look through the gap available. He hung from his fingertips as he had no foothold available and afforded himself a sweeping glance of the twelfth floor.

The sound of weapons fire reported distantly once more. Distant but louder than it had been in the enclosed lift. He imagined the sound would be quite…shocking in close quarters. He had no desire to become acquainted with same. He dropped back down to the floor of the elevator car.

“I see no one.”

“Okay, use me as a step to get up and out.” Amanda dropped down to one knee offering her leg and then shoulder, braced as she was against the wall, as a ladder for him to escape. He blinked at her and she glared at him in apparent irritation. “You have to go first, there’s no way I can pull you out myself.”

Sarek wished to protest, he did not wish his density to damage her with his weight but she was correct. She would be entirely unable to lift him out of the elevator car.

“Very well.” Sarek calculated the route he was to take and moved quickly and as lightly as he could.

He was forced to rest his entire weight on her leg but he imagined that the larger weight bearing bones there would be better suited to supporting him than the slighter frame of her spine. He kept the contact as minimal as possible and dragged himself out of the elevator shaft with as much speed as he could muster.

Amanda made not a sound at such rough treatment and was in fact already standing with her hands upstretched towards him when he spun around on belly and reached back down for her. He had time to brace himself mentally but hurried to take her hands in his.

Contact.

Sarek’s fingers tightened around hers partially to prevent himself from dropping her and partially due to an instinctive reaction that he could not stem.

A brilliant and distinct impression of her mind flared against his consciousness. She was agitated and afraid but beneath that the brighter hues of what humans had in place of a katra pulsed against him with a vibrancy he had never before encountered.

Sarek scrambled to shore up his mental shields against such an inappropriate connection but it was difficult when her own emotions were so heightened.

“Oh.” Amanda faltered, seemingly aware of the tactile press of his mind against hers despite his best efforts.

“Apologies.” Sarek gritted, not at all happy about the way his control seemed to have abandoned him as soon as his skin touched hers.

He had heard that some bonds were abnormally insistent and could spring up between minds despite the best efforts of the Vulcans involved. He had never heard of nor suspected that a human could evoke the same reaction between compatible Vulcan minds.

“Makes sense why you don’t do PDA, I guess.” Amanda allowed herself to be hauled out of the lift and waved Sarek off when being dragged over the lip of the elevator doorway dug into her scar. “I’m alright.”

“I do apologise.” He was giving her the Vulcan version of a frown. Wondering if he had wrenched her arms out of their sockets perhaps. He was very strong.

“It’s okay, you get shot one time, you know?” Amanda pressed her hand to her side and levered herself to her feet.

“I…do not know.” Sarek admitted. “You have been injured?”

“A few weeks back.” Amanda waved it away.

“Weeks? In your torso? Is that not where the human organs of importance are housed?”

“Gut shot, yeah. Took me a long time to die.” Amanda looked around herself.

“Die?” Sarek looked in the opposite direction and attempted to discern if the weapons fire was _actually_ getting closer or if it just seemed that way.

They were in the main building of the Federation Headquarters. The elevator shaft ran up the centre of the open plan atrium and it was made up of rows upon rows of circular balconies that ringed the main tower. The elevator shafts were connected to the circling balconies by bridges that spanned the hollow of the building in varying angles from the ground floor all the way to the top. It gave the impression of looking up or down at a spiral staircase only on a _much_ larger scale.

“Couple of times. The resuscitation was _much_ worse than the actual shot. I’ll take a bolt through the midsection over neural shocking any day. Uh…this way.” Amanda picked a direction seemingly at random and started along the bridge towards the balcony.

She jagged to a halt when two humans rounded the side of the elevator shafts and stiffened, weapons bristling when they saw her.

“Friendlies!” Amanda threw her hands up over her head. “Friendly.”

The two humans, now recognisable as Secret Service due to their non-descript suits and discreet earpieces, lowered their phasers when they recognised Sarek.

“Ambassador, I’m agent Telfer, we were coming to find you. Are you well?” The first agent asked.

“I am well. Amanda has an agitated injury to her midsection.” Sarek was forced to use her given name when he realised he did not know her family name.

“I’m fine, fellas.” Amanda drawled. She held out her hand. “Give me a weapon.”

“Not likely.” The second agent almost snorted in derision or amusement.

“I’m Amanda Grayson.” She snapped, her hand still extended and her jaw clenched. “Give me a fucking weapon.”

“Here.” Telfer reached down towards his ankle and loosened a smaller phaser than the one he held in his hands. “You don’t have that monster dog with you, do you?”

“’Fraid not.” Amanda took the phaser, checking it in her hands and holding it competently if not entirely comfortably.

“Pity.” Telfer waved Sarek closer. “Ambassador, if you would come with us.”

“What is happening?” Sarek nodded, falling into step with the agents.

“The building is under attack from an unknown and hostile force. It appears to be digital as well as physical in nature as we’ve been unable to call for reinforcements. Comms are down unless they’re hardwired throughout the entire building. We only knew where you were because what we took to be your assistant called to see when we were getting you out.” Telfer looked back to shoot a dry look at Amanda.

“Hey, I’m owed no favours in here but you’ve gotta be nice to him.” Amanda defended herself. Her voice held an edge that seemed not entirely out of place. “Any identifiers on the attackers?”

“Security footage is patchy. We just know that they’re heavily armed and on their way. If you would follow us.” Telfer waved Sarek and Amanda to precede him with his colleague taking point.

It was a format of movement that Amanda was familiar with. She was more than used to scurrying along amongst the more heavily armed and competent military people she had been embedded with but she was loathe to plant herself there in this instance.

“Miss Grayson, I know it sounded polite but it wasn’t a request.” Telfer spoke with more steel in his tone.

Amanda froze when she heard it. A low and sibilant hiss. Her muscles tensed and her skin crawled in visceral response and she screamed without even looking up.

“Move!” Amanda hurled herself backwards and Telfer knew better than to question that kind of fear in someone’s eyes. He gripped Sarek by the tunic and hauled him bodily backwards without even a second to spare.

His junior agent wasn’t so lucky.

The younger man didn’t even have time to scream as a dull orange blast of disruptor fire impacted his shoulder. He spun with the shot, as if lanced by a physical thing, his flesh contorting.

Amanda twisted away, shielding her eyes and mouth and curled in on herself when he exploded. Scattered chunks of human tissue and liquefied bone splattered outwards in a two metre radius. She was hit with slivers of cooking muscle and simmering blood. The sting was terrible but not as terrible as the sight of his feet and lower legs left standing in his wake. The rest of his body entirely obliterated and the remaining stumps of his limbs smoking lightly.

She was struck with the sudden and bizarre urge to laugh. It was like something out of one of those twenty first century slapstick cartoons. Though the agent wasn’t going to recover. He wasn’t going to pop back up in the next scene ready to try another Acme powered hare-brained scheme.

She made out the hazy shapes of Sarek and the Agent beating a retreat on the other side of the red mist that remained of the junior agent. She scrambled to her feet in agreement and hurled herself along the bridge, heading in the opposite direction for the relative safety of the balcony ringing the tower. If she was overshadowed by the reinforced floor, they’d have to take multiple shots to disintegrate the balcony above before they could get line of sight.

That was if she was lucky. If she was unlucky, they wanted her alive.

Amanda all but crashed into the door leading to the stairwell and hurled herself headlong down the steps. Adrenaline coursed through her, blocking the pain and horror and keeping her on her feet. She ignored the way she slipped and slithered on the landing, her entire body painted with blood and human chunks.

The clatter of feet far below her did not at all sound friendly. She heard them hiss to one another, that terrible guttural sound that interfered with her hindbrain and her molars and she careened wildly to the side. Bursting out of the next door she came across and into the balcony beyond.

She had to stay on the peripheral, make her way to one of the wings. Get down as fast as she could and away. She had no illusions that there probably wasn’t a spare panic room for the likes of her but if she could get low enough then she could get out. Even if she had to bypass the ground floor to do so.

Amanda tore around the edge of the balcony, staying close to the wall of the tower. She rounded a corner, moving for one of the corridors that would take her to a secondary tower. It housed the accounting department of the Headquarters if she remembered rightly.

She caught the dull orange light out of the corner of her eye and dropped when she realised she couldn’t alter her momentum. She hit the floor hard on her knees, arching backwards to try and minimise her profile and slithered along the marble, careening out of control.

The burnt orange flare of disruptor plasma soared over her, missing her by inches. Amanda was already scrambling upright before she even halted. She dashed back the way she had come, firing blindly over her shoulder and ducking back around the corner.

Her legs locked straight when the door to the stairwell she had exited moments before was kicked open and the intruders ducked out of it.

Literally ducked out of it, they were huge. Massive shoulders and elongated torsos, they had to twist out of the human sized doorway one shoulder after the other. Their legs were short and powerful with the odd proportions and elongated foot of a digitrade predator that had learned to walk upright. Armoured gloves covered long talons that held heavy compression rifles with a casual brutality. Black ceramic plating covered their entire bodies, heavy packs hunched over their backs like some sort of EV suit that slowed them not at all with its weight. The smallest of them was well over two metres tall and Amanda saw her relatively tiny form reflected back at her from their convex mirrored faceplates.

Amanda reversed, ducking backwards behind a support beam and mashing herself against the wall. She clutched her phaser in sweaty hands and tried to level out her breathing. She needed to think. 

At least a half dozen of them were crawling out of the stairwell, those in the lead moving upright as bipeds and those taking up the rear prowling along on all fours. One of them tracking along the wall as easily as its compatriots traversed the floor.

A further four, at least, were down the hallway. All of them armed. All of them huge and all of them quite capable of tearing her limb from limb.

Again, if she was lucky.

One of them barked a sound to its team around the corner and a hissing whistle answered. The conversation guttered back and forth for a few unintelligible syllables and then a very human sounding voice issued from within their helms. They all spoke as one. Multiple translators projecting their words to bounce around the halls surrounding her.

“Amanda Grayson.” Her own voice echoed tinnily at her. They had taken a recording of when she had spoken to the agents. “Surrender!”

The second recording was a panicked scream. No doubt snatched from the throat of one of the people they had already killed on their way here.

“If it’s all the same, I’d rather not!” Amanda looked down at the small phaser in her hand and calculated her odds.

Not good.

At least ten of them. More on the way no doubt and they knew exactly who she was. They knew who she was and what she had seen. They hadn’t killed her yet which meant they had no intention of doing so.

They did not have the concept of mercy.

“You are surrounded! Put your weapon down!” Another recorded human voice came at her from all angles. They seemed to be getting closer. She noted somewhere that this recording must have been taken from the security forces that had attempted to stop them.

Well trained and well-armed agents that were now no doubt currently redecorating the corridors with their innards.

That thought gave her the rage she needed to lean out of her hiding place. She opened fire with the small handheld phaser even if she knew it was going to do nothing. They shrugged off phaser fire even without their EV suits.

Still, that wasn’t what she was aiming for.

One of the aliens screamed in pain or surprise when one of her shots managed to hit the tank visible over its shoulder. The container ruptured, spewing gas out of it and the alien was staggered by the blow. It sprawled sideways, falling into its comrade on the wall and knocking it from its perch.

With that moment of distraction, she spun the other way, leaning around into the corridor and strafing the narrow space with further phaser fire. Thank god this was a simple model. Little more than point and click.

Amanda slithered back into her hiding place, hidden from view but not their reach and not for long. Her experiment had yielded troubling results.

Not one of them had fired back. They’d had the opportunity and the means, the lead alien had watched her fire upon its comrades and had made no move to harm her. Even when the phaser fire had careened harmlessly off its armour, it hadn’t even flinched.

“We wish. You. Alive. That doesn’t mean…Intact.”

Amanda pressed herself further back against the wall as the alien compiled a sentence of its stolen words for her. She felt very real fear crawl up her spine and supposed it was a little late for the party.

“We know. _What!_ You saw.”

Amanda sucked in a deep breath and a sudden calm washed over her.

There was no way out of this. Not in one piece anyway. They were going to take her. They were going to take her and then they were going to torture her. They were going to pull her apart right down to the sinews and when –not if, when- she broke…they were going to eat her. They’d eat her and they’d know what she knew and even if she didn’t break they’d eat her anyway in the hope that they could imbibe the knowledge from her that way.

So.

She was going to die.

It was just a matter of how or when, really.

Amanda let loose a slow sigh, they were prowling closer. She couldn’t hear them, you never could. Though she could sense them getting closer in that deep animal part of her brain that remembered when predators like this came for soft little mammals like her. She saw their shadows lengthen on the floor and made her decision.

The barrel of the phaser was surprisingly hot when she pressed it to her temple. She felt her hair singe and her skin sizzled, she winced a little at the sensation but that didn’t stop her.

She pulled the trigger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is quite a short one. I may update again in a couple days to give you something more to chew on.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 – Escapes Are Made…Sort Of**

**_Federation Headquarters, the Twelfth floor…_ **

Sarek was hauled bodily along the bridge by the human Secret Service agent.

He forced down the powerful surge of revulsion that washed through him when he realised the wetness on his face and clothes was that of human remains. The mulched viscera and muscle splattered over his left side, sizzling against his skin in a patter of needle sharp burns. Sarek shoved that useless sensation away. He scrubbed at his eyes with one hand, struggling to clear the pink haze from his vision. A red mist of blood clouded around them and the agent did not falter or hesitate as he dragged Sarek through it.

The human did not swear nor did he seem to panic. He held onto Sarek’s arm, one strong hand manacled around Sarek’s wrist, and pulled him along in his wake. The agent forcing himself between their attackers and Sarek even if his smaller height meant he could not effectively act as a shield.

Though, considering the weaponry, Sarek thought it a moot point. They could both be destroyed by such disruptor fire in a single shot it was clear.

Sarek twisted and looked up at their attackers even as he ran. He saw tall and broad shapes silhouetted against the balcony of the floor above. Mirrored faceplates alongside matt black environmental suits of some kind. The race was one he could not place under the armour. He did not recognise the design of their weaponry nor the guttural hissing language they spoke with.

An entirely new species –or one with very effective disguises- and they were here, on Earth, committing an unprovoked attack on the seat of power of the Federation itself. It spoke of a worrying depth of resource, intelligence, technology or all of the above.

Sarek had a brief hope that they were not allied with the Logic Extremists. Not for the sake of his own life, he was fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, but if these were allies of the Logic Extremists and they had been sent for the bounty on his head...Sarek knew that his people would be entering a new age of terrorism and he did not wish that for anyone.

“Ambassador, we must keep moving!”

Sarek realised only then that he had stopped moving. Stopped retreating. Why? What had he seen?

Moreover, it was what he had not seen.

No more weapons fire. The barrels of the stocky rifles had retreated back over the balcony above. The silhouettes of the aliens retreating with them. If the aim was to kill himself or as many Federation members as possible…why not obliterate them? There was nowhere to hide. No shelter within immediate reach. They could have easily done so.

Sarek twisted, ignoring the way the human pulled at him. Now that he was no longer cooperating, the smaller male had little chance of moving him.

“Where is Miss Grayson?” He turned back to the agent, noting the sweat on the male’s brow, the way his pupils had blown in a panic response. He was handling it well but he was certainly affected by his fear.

“Was she caught in the blast?”

“No. She removed herself as far as she was able. In the opposite direction.”

“Not surprising. She’s a war correspondent. She knows how to get out of dodge and let the soldiers take over. As we should be doing now, Ambassador.”

“She is alone.” Sarek insisted. “We have not been destroyed by an enemy with superior firepower to that which you possess. They could have easily done so but they have not. Why?”

“Ambassador, mine’s not to ask why, it’s to get your ass to a bunker and keep you there until we can mop this mess up.” Telfer told him tersely. He had released Sarek’s arm and seemed to be debating on whether or not he should stun the Ambassador and attempt to carry him to safety or if Sarek might be reasoned with.

“The logical conclusion is that this attack is not random. It is targeted. If we have been left alive, it is because we are not the target. Why fire upon us, kill one of our number and then not the remainder? Unless it is a diversion.” Sarek strode to the balcony and looked down to see Amanda Grayson sprinting along the lower floor, running for her life. “Unless we are not the target.”

“They want Grayson?!” Telfer joined Sarek at the railing and hissed in low sympathy when Amanda was nearly taken out by a further blast of an energy weapon.

She scrambled back the way she had come and ducked into the shadow of a support pillar when yet more intruders exited the stairwell on that floor.

Sarek watched as Amanda hefted the phaser in her hand and ducked out of her hiding place. She fired one way and then the opposite. She managed to damage one of the alien EV suits but the phaser fire otherwise splattered harmlessly from the matt black plating.

What was she doing?

She had to know that she was outnumbered and outgunned. The only logical choice would be to surrender in the name of prolonging her life. They must surely want her alive if they had not obliterated her with their weapons before now. Competent with her weapon she might have been but she was far from an expert or trained for combat. There had been ample opportunity for her attackers to kill her and they had not.

Why not surrender if they wanted her alive?

Sarek watched as Amanda looked down at the phaser in her hand. Her breathing slowed and calm seemed to wash over her. Ah, she was going to surrender.

It was a sharp flare of shock which jolted him when, instead of surrendering, Amanda lifted her own weapon to her head and pulled the trigger.

“ _Jesus!”_ Telfer gripped Sarek’s arm, vocalising their surprise even if Sarek gave no outward reaction. He shivered when relief followed close on its heels. “Oh, thank fuck.”

The weapon had failed.

Sarek was further assailed from within by something very like dizzying relief when the phaser fizzled in Amanda’s grip but did nothing more than singe the hair at her temple. She yanked it away from her head, her lips pressed together in a thin white line when she realised it wasn’t going to work. She looked up at the ceiling of the tower high above them.

 _“Really?!”_ She seemed to say.

Amanda threw aside the phaser and looked about herself. She had to know the aliens were approaching even if she could not see them. Her eyes lit upon the balcony railing in front of her and Sarek had an alarming moment of prescience.

Oh no.

**_Downstairs, With Amanda…_ **

“Really?!” Amanda hissed at the ceiling, cursing whichever deity had seen fit to shit in her karmic cornflakes today.

Okay, fine. No worries. Busted phaser. Not ideal.

Amanda tossed the useless weapon away, shrinking back into her little alcove and wondering if she might be able to blend into the wall if she but wished it hard enough.

Her eyes darted around the tower, scanning the balcony, the walls, the ceiling. They were going to catch her. Hell, they had already caught her and her noble intentions of seeing herself off this mortal coil before they could eat her raw had taken a bit of a nosedive…dive.

Balcony.

That would do.

Amanda hurled herself forward before she could talk herself out of it. She tried to remember the swing of the spiralling bridges from the elevator shaft. Tried to think about which angle she should aim for if she really wasn’t set to die today. She tried desperately not to think about what might happen if she missed and plummeted to her death far below. Falling seemed like such an awful way to go. Far too much time to think on the way down. She’d much rather the last thing to go through her head might be something more pleasant than the shattered pulp of her lower limbs impacting her skull as she folded up like an accordion.

She picked right…because it was further away from the aliens. Bolted for the balcony railing, hurled herself up onto it with one foot and launched herself out into the great yawning space beyond.

All the air left her lungs when she saw a great big heap of _nothing_ below her. She had time to realise that she was actually going to die and that she’d really rather not. Then she was hit by something midair. Her trajectory changed. Violently.

Amanda wheezed when steel bands seemed to lock around her ribcage. She twisted to try and free herself even as she tumbled through the air. She caught kaleidoscope flashes of ceiling, wall, alien, wall, ceiling, _floor!_

They hit the ground hard though her captor managed to twist so that they took the brunt of the impact. They tumbled wildly across the carpeted floor, each time her assailant seemed to land beneath her with a muted grunt of discomfort until they finally slithered to a halt some three metres down a hallway.

Amanda’s entire body jangled with adrenaline aftershocks. She shook wildly and scrambled away from her attacker. Another one. She’d had more than enough of those for the day. Hell, the week.

“Miss…Miss Grayson…”

Amanda froze when that breathless voice registered and she twisted to look over her shoulder. She blinked when confronted with a red misted Vulcan ambassador sprawled on the floor.

“Sarek?”

“You were expecting…another?” Sarek did not quite manage to suppress his wince as he sat upright.

Amanda coughed a laugh, one that sounded just this side of hysterical so she stifled herself quickly. They weren’t out of danger yet.

“You should be in a bunker somewhere.”

“As should you.” Sarek hauled himself to his feet and extended his hand to her, clearly meaning for her to do the same.

“Vulcans don’t like touching.” She murmured.

“Circumstances sometimes require it.” Sarek leaned down, gripping her wrist and pulled her to her feet. “I would prefer a minor social discomfort to your untimely demise.”

“You don’t even know me.” Amanda looked back the way they had come. Crashing down a floor and onto the balcony below.

She was boggled. He had hurled himself a full –what- twenty, twenty five feet in order to tackle her midair and keep her from being splattered on the marble lobby far below. He had risked his own neck to keep hers from breaking and they had shared nothing more than a conversation in an elevator and a bizarre circumstance. He’d hurt himself, judging by the way he favoured his ribs on one side, and looked at her expectantly.

“We should leave now. Agent Telfer is covering our escape.” Sarek removed his hand from where it pressed to his side when he saw her looking and Agent Telfer made his move.

Amanda ducked on harried instinct when a concussive blast shattered the glass balcony railing on the floor above. There was a horrific flash of light, the pungent smell of sulphur and an incredible noise like someone had set off fireworks inside.

“What is _that_?” Amanda looked at Sarek, wide eyed.

“I did not have the opportunity to ask, only to instruct that he should distract your pursuers.” Sarek reached out and tried to waft her down the corridor. “The safety bunkers, I believe, are in the basement. You know this building’s layout better than I, Miss Grayson. Lead the way.”

Amanda shot him a look. She knew what he was doing. She was in danger of going into shock. She’d been in enough high octane situations to know the haze clouding the edge of her senses when she felt it. He was giving her something to do so that she didn’t shut down.

Capital idea.

“Basement…this way.” Amanda started down the corridor with a quick stride and hissed when her scar pained her. She limped, easing the pull on the repaired tissues, but kept going.

“Did I injure you?” Sarek was practically on her heels.

“No. The gut shot I told you about. You saved my life. Why?”

“I have my reasons.” Sarek told her. “You’re welcome, by the by.”

Amanda twisted to look at him when he parroted some of her first words to him back at her. She huffed something like a laugh and took the next left.

She moved at a hasty half jog but neither of them were currently up to sprinting. She suspected she had at least cracked his ribs at some point when she had landed on him and her side and hip were beginning to seize up. She wasn’t due her next shot of painkillers for an hour but she supposed a life and death situation had a way of burning through such things.

“Thank you.” Amanda met his gaze as she said it. “It might prove a moot point but…thank you.”

“I did not think that you would wish to die given an alternative.”

Amanda realised then that he must have seen. He must have seen her put a phaser to her head and pull the trigger. It was sheer happenstance that she was still alive. Nearly impossible really, that brand of phaser was known for being nigh unto indestructible and reliable in hellish conditions. It really should have worked.

“No.” She admitted. “No, I really don’t.”

“I have noticed that humans will often cling to life in even the most dire of circumstances. You may not be as physically strong or durable as many humanoid races in this part of the galaxy but you survive _much_. I do not claim to be an expert, but the willingness you exhibited to self-terminate seems unusual.”

“Seemed better than the alternative. I’ve seen these guys before.” Amanda imagined that he had already figured that much out for himself. “I’ve seen what they do to the people they capture. It’s not…I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”

“There is a certain logic to such action.” Sarek admitted after a moment, seemingly unsettled by the revelation, and followed her down another corridor and into an office. “You know this species?”

“I’ve seen them in action.” Amanda admitted. “I don’t know what they’re called or what they look like under that armour, but I recognise it.”

“Where?”

“If that planet had a name, we never found out.” Amanda rounded the desk in the office, into the back corner and opened the door there that was supposed to be out of sight unless you were nosey for a living and happened to notice this sort of thing.

“We? Agent Telfer said that you were a war correspondent, this implies that you keep the company of soldiers. Unusual considering Starfleet has taken on the role of a military force for Earth and their primary objective is exploration.”

“It’s not just the Federation that’s out in space and it’s not just exploring that humanity is good at.” Amanda cautiously sidled into the next office and listened carefully for sound of intruders other than themselves.

“What else?”

“Huh?” Amanda looked up from tapping one of the vid screens on the desk.

The Federation insignia spun on its axis but otherwise refused to play ball. Looked like hard line communication was now limited as well. Great.

“What else is humanity good at?”

“Helping, Ambassador. We’re good at helping.” Amanda stole out of the office and into another thankfully deserted corridor.

“Help that leads a hostile force to the headquarters of the Federation?”

“I was with Amnesty Interstellar. It’s a charity group funded and run by civilians. They’ve taken their name from an old Earth organisation called Amnesty International. They worked to prevent suffering and preserve the rights of minority groups amongst the human population some two hundred years ago. With interstellar travel and the widening galactic community, some humans and however many other races they can get involved want to continue that mission out there in space.”

“So what help did Amnesty Intergalactic give to receive this invasive response?” Sarek removed his hand from his ribs when she glanced back at him again. She frowned, her jaw tense, but looked away again without comment on the matter.

“There’s a colony, way out Cestus III way, little ragtag outfit of frontier folk looking to carve out a living on a rock. Amnesty received a distress call from them, asking for aid, something about an infestation. I was doing a piece on Amnesty when they got the call and was invited along. When we got there, expecting space roaches or rodents of an unusual size…we found our friends upstairs instead.” Amanda poked her head in through a doorway and then beckoned him to follow.

“They attacked the colony without warning?” Sarek followed her into the next corridor and frowned when he found himself in a narrow stairwell.

It was poorly lit with dim red emergency lighting that throbbed brighter and dimmer in an unsettling manner. The stairs were bare concrete with sharp edges, the railing anodised metal with no artifice and it was entirely empty. Sarek glanced up to see it stretch far above them and down over the railing to see that the stairs disappeared into the murk below. Visibility was limited at best.

“As you might have heard, they don’t or can’t speak Federation Standard or any of the other languages that the best universal translators money can buy have in their hard drives. One of the first things they did was take our human translator and…” Amanda halted, halfway down the steps, her body bowing to one side and her hand pressing hard to her flank.

“Are you well?” Sarek joined her on the same step, his hand hovering uncertainly near her elbow. He wondered if it might be more expedient to pick her up and carry her or if the pressure that would put on her scar tissue would be worse.

“Fine. Adrenaline is wearing off is all. I’m beginning to hurt again.” Amanda forced herself onwards but her posture was not as upright as it had been and she favoured one side heavily. “What was I saying?”

“They captured your human translator.”

“Yeah, nice guy, went by the name of Flaherty. _Uncanny_ with languages. Could pick them up and churn them out like…I don’t know, metaphor is not a service I have right now. Anyway, kid spoke at least forty languages. They snatched him on the first night. They kept him alive for quite a while, turns out they were figuring out how many different sounds he could make. They wanted to know our vocal range. We found what was left of him in the morning.”

“They had tortured him?”

“Yeah. They tortured him.” Amanda’s voice was flat. A recitation of the facts. “When they were done, they ate him.”

Sarek stiffened at that. He had not…hmm. That was concerning. Not many warp capable species ate those that they knew to be sentient. It was…not done. Sarek viewed Amanda’s willingness to self-terminate rather than endure such things in a new light. He followed her deeper into the throbbing dark of the red lights, down and down towards the depths of the building.

“After _that_ …they started the recordings and playbacks. They turned Flaherty’s death throes into words. Just…screaming and screaming and screaming.” Amanda shook her head sharply as if to dispel the memories. “They took more of us. The more they took, the more words they could add to their vocabulary until a discourse of sorts could be made out.”

“What did they say?”

“Oh, you know, the usual bullshit from death worshipping fucks.” Amanda reached a landing and cracked it open. Bright white light slices across her face, highlighting the dried red brown stains of the junior agent’s cooked blood on her skin. “We were trespassing infidels and we were going to die for our crimes.”

“What can you see?” Sarek prompted her when her pale eyes seemed to gleam from the inside of the blood mask on her face.

“A very empty lobby.” Amanda licked her lips nervously, incredibly glad that her arm had managed to shield her nose and mouth from exploded agent.

“Should the building not have been evacuated?” Sarek thought that a logical course of action.

“Yeah. Should have been but…no alerts. No alarms. Building has a tannoy system to administer instructions in the event. So, if Starfleet didn’t clear it out…”

“You believe the invaders have been here.”

“I think they _are_ here.” Amanda scanned what she could see of the lobby. Daylight streaming in from the glass front of the building. Something niggled at the back of her brain but she couldn’t quite…

“Is there any other way to the basement?”

“What?” Amanda twisted to look up at Sarek.

“The basement, Miss Grayson, we have to get to the bunkers until reinforcements can be summoned.”

“They’re already in the basement.” Amanda murmured.

“How could you possibly…?”

“They always were active at night. Think about it, matt black EV suits to blend in with the dark, they prefer the stairwells and the hallways to the main atrium, polarised faceplates…they don’t like the light.”

“You propose that we leave ourselves vulnerable to pursuit based on…this hypothesis?” Sarek chose his words carefully.

“Everything I’ve seen supports it. At least in the daylight, if we can get outside, we’ll have somewhere to run _to_. If we go down to the basement then it’s a dead end and I really hope not literally.”

Sarek considered her argument for a long moment and then nodded once. His hand landed on the door when she made to open it.

“I should go first. You are their target.”

Amanda opened her mouth to protest but Sarek had already wedged himself between her and the door and slipped out of it. She hissed in annoyance at being so outmanoeuvred but stayed in the shadows and watched his progress.

Sarek strode out into the lobby of the Federation Headquarters as easily as he had done less than an hour ago. He stood tall and seemed perfectly at ease with his surroundings. His gaze swept back and forth, senses stretched taut for danger or any sign of the intruders…but nothing.

He stood there for long moments, considering the space he found himself in. He glanced through the sealed glass doors to the main tower of the building. He could see what looked to be the red misted remains of yet more security personnel, shattered glass, scorched shrapnel and extensive devastation beyond the seemingly pristine lobby.

Sarek’s fingers twitched at his side and Amanda slipped from her hiding place at the signal. She crept up towards him, her head on a swivel and –even though she knew it was stupid- felt a little safer when she was closer to him again. The man had a knack for getting out of trouble it seemed.

It least it seemed that way right up until the grenade skittered across the floor and exploded inky darkness all around them.

Amanda had time to huff out a sigh, lamenting about speaking to soon even if it had only been internally, and then what felt like a rifle stock hit her shockingly hard in the head.

Internal darkness melded with the external.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's so weird to be updating regularly. 
> 
> The lack of guilt is boggling :D
> 
> Let me know what y'all think so far.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 – Air Miles**

Amanda came back to herself face down on…a window?

She deliberately did not groan or tense or give any other indication of being awake. She blinked to try and clear her vision. Recognising a pane of glass against her throbbing cheek when she felt and saw it and blinked a few more times to try and get that big blue light to focus.

“Fuck!” Amanda bolted upright when that big blue light resolved itself into the rapidly shrinking form of her home planet.

She had time only to suck in a surprised breath, quickly putting together that she had been captured and dumped onto an alien ship. Her stomach swooped when inertial dampeners that had not been designed with human sensibilities kicked in and the ship jumped to warp.

“You woke faster than I expected.”

“Shit!” Amanda bodily flinched away from the sound, crashing into the curved glass wall of her prison and groaned when her multitude of injuries chorused a roll call. “Oh, agh, oww.”

Amanda lifted her hands, not sure which hurt to cradle first and settled for tentatively touching her head to check for extra corners and leaking brain fluid. Her hand came away sticky with drying blood and she could feel more of it down one side of her face. Further smears attested to her having been hit quite heftily about the brain box and she decided to sit where she was and quietly take stock before the nausea overpowered her and she barfed on her own shoes.

Which led her looking drunkenly to her fellow captive, Ambassador Sarek.

“We have to stop meeting like this.” Amanda smiled awkwardly, her jaw tender on that side of her face and her eyes widened when she realised what she was looking at. “What happened?”

“I believe the invaders used an inverted device to that which Agent Telfer employed. Instead of giving off sound and light, their grenades produced darkness and silence. A curious phenomenon. They used the distraction to their advantage to incapacitate us both and transport us to their vessel. It is clearly an interstellar craft in design as we have just jumped to warp.” Sarek spoke mildly, as if commenting on the weather. In fact he only seemed unsettled when Amanda rolled to her knees and crawled towards him as quickly as she was able.

“Yeah, I got all that, I meant what happened to _your face_?!” Amanda folded herself onto her knees so that she sat closer to eye level with him and grimaced at the _mess_ that he was. “And the rest of you for that matter. You look like you tangled with a tiger and lost.”

Sarek searched his memory for the animal in question and summoned the image of a large striped feline native to Earth. He arched an eyebrow.

“I imagine a tiger would not have had a vested interest in keeping me alive.”

“I don’t think our hosts do either, can you even see out this eye?” Amanda lifted her hand as if to touch but changed her mind just as quickly.

He was a wreck. The last she had seen him, he had been splattered with gore and a little worse for wear but mostly still coiffed and poised. Now the blood that painted him was a verdant green in colour and she thought that was what happened to Vulcan blood when it oxidised. He was mottled with deep green and black bruises all over his face and neck. His lip was split, one eye was swollen to the point of being useless, one of his ears looked… _crunched_ , his hair was wild and his clothes ripped and bloodied.

“Minimally. I have been meditating to minimise the swelling but results have not been optimal.”

“Gee, ya think?!” Amanda glared at him and promptly stopped when it hurt her face. “Why did they go to town on you?”

“I…took exception to being manhandled.” Sarek chose his words and Amanda narrowed her eyes.

“It was a blackout grenade. You couldn’t see or hear them.”

“I have other senses.” Was all he said but there was a flash of…something in his remaining good eye that made Amanda decide to stow her reporter’s instinct to question everything and perhaps focus instead on some good she might be able to do.

“Is there water in here for us? I should probably try and clean your wounds.” Amanda looked about herself and noticed their cell for the first time.

They were in a test tube.

She swallowed hard at that notion but found it a difficult one to shake. They were in what appeared to be a glass container buckled onto the back of their starship. There were no windows, she had woken face down on the curved floor of the cell which happened to be made of the same glass as the rest of it. It was attached to the back of the starship by what appeared to be a docking port. There were two mesh grills on either side of the door. Presumably one was for air and the second for communication.

There was nothing in there with them. No beds, no sanitation facilities, nothing.

They were specimens in a jar.

A cold sense of calm washed over her and Amanda let loose a slow breath. She felt her legs slither from under her and she let herself slide sideways to sit on one hip. She leaned against the curved side of the canister cell and stared at nothing.

“Miss Grayson, are you well?” Sarek looked at her without moving anything other than his head. She thought his calm rather maddening.

“For now.” She muttered and reached up to rub at her eyes. They were gritty and her head hurt.

Her whole body hurt.

“You have surmised something from our surroundings.”

“Yeah.” Amanda rubbed at the back of her neck and wondered if there was a point in trying to work out the kinks there. Somehow she thought not.

“Care to enlighten me?”

“They’re going to do to me what they did to Flaherty.” Amanda looked down at her legs and picked at the frayed hem of one of her pockets. “They’re going to torture me and then they’re going to eat me.”

Sarek watched her for a long and unblinking moment with his one good eye and was at a loss as to how he should react.

“Your tone of voice does not indicate that this…troubles you. It troubled you in the Federation Headquarters. It troubled you enough to put what you believed to be an active phaser to your head and pull the trigger.” He continued when Amanda just nodded and shrugged. “If this is an emotional response, I confess that I do not understand it.”

“You believe in General Order One, right?” Amanda looked at him suddenly.

“It is not a matter of belief. I follow the Prime Directive as do all Vulcans.”

“Why?” Amanda shifted, curling her knees up towards her chest and then changing her mind when her side burned. She was really overdue painkillers now but she had forgotten about her scar amidst all the other pains screaming to be heard.

“It is a directive from the Vulcan High Council.”

“Uh-huh, but why?”

“I do not understand.”

“I know it’s the law, but you’re an intelligent guy as are the rest of your people presumably, they wouldn’t follow a law unless it was logical. Though Vulcans are not without compassion or you wouldn’t have swan dived off a balcony to save my dusty ass. So…why?”

“To interfere in the development of a culture as it would naturally occur would be…abhorrent. Every species has a right to thrive or not according to their natural selection. To appear, as technologically advanced as we are, means that it would be far too likely that we would be mistaken for mythological beings of great power. A power that could all to easily be abused. Furthermore, it is unethical to enforce our moral beliefs upon other cultures. The universe is infinite diversity in infinite combinations. Vulcans, or any other species, have no right to stifle that diversity.”

Amanda nodded slowly.

“What would you do to protect that ideal?”

“What I must. Within reason.”

“Would you kill?”

“I may have already terminated one of our attackers. I am unsure. I am a pacifist by nature though I have found that violence does have its place. If it comes to a choice between their life and mine, I believe I will defend myself to my utmost ability.”

“I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about me.”

Sarek tilted his head.

“When we were on that planet, when we were running for our lives, I got separated from the group. I had to catch up, had to take a different route and…I found something. Someone.” She shook her head sharply. “I don’t know. It was something new. Something no one is ever seen before. Something _they_ call a god.” Amanda tilted her head towards the back of the starship, indicating the occupants inside.

“They called you trespassing infidels.” Sarek murmured. “You meant that quote verbatim.”

Amanda looked him dead in the eye and nodded. Willing him to understand.

“What I saw, I can’t explain and I can’t forget and they’re going to put me in a box and peel me apart until I tell them how to get to it. I _cannot_ let that happen. Do you understand? I will break, it’s just a matter of time, everybody breaks. I can’t afford to be broken. I don’t want to tell them but I think they’ll make me.” Amanda curled her bloodied fingers into fists until her knuckles whitened. “They can’t know. They can’t know where it is.”

“Why? If it is their god then they shall worship it. It is their right to do so.”

“You’re not listening!” Amanda scrubbed a hand through her hair and all but snarled at him. “Think about what you’ve seen today, think about what I’ve told you, what do they do to things they want to understand?”

Sarek blinked, honestly considering the question and then comprehension dawned.

“They dissect,” he realised, “and devour.”

“They didn’t chase us off that planet to preserve a sacred site. They didn’t follow me all the way to Earth and kidnap us because we trespassed. If that had been all, it would have been the end of it. They didn’t go after anyone else on the expedition, they came after me. They want to know where their god is and they damn well want to eat it and I’m NOT letting that happen.”

“I am curious as to how you plan on stopping them.”

“I can’t. Not alone. I mean, I tried blowing myself up and that didn’t work. Flung myself off a balcony and managed to continue my long standing tradition of missing the ground…so I’m out of ideas. I’m pretty sure that I can’t convince you to just snap my neck. Aside from the fact that I wouldn’t wish that on a tactile telepath, it just means that you’re here on your own and you get moved up to the main course. So…I’m open to suggestions.”

Sarek regarded her for a long and unblinking moment and inhaled deeply. This female was a constant surprise to him.

“To clarify,” he wanted her to be certain of something, “I will never harm you. Not even out of some misplaced form of mercy. Furthermore, Starfleet shall be in pursuit. Not only has a diplomat been kidnapped but it has happened –as humans would say- right under their noses. Humans are territorial about such things.”

“Can’t argue with that.”

“So, our only logical course of action is to prolong our lives for as long as possible until rescue arrives.”

“That was our plan in the Headquarters and it didn’t…work…so much.” Amanda pointed out the back of the canister at the streaming lights of warp speed as if to indicate the now far distant Earth.

“Until rescue arrives _or_ the opportunity to extricate ourselves from this situation arises.” Sarek continued doggedly.

“Cool. Stuck on an alien ship wired in a language neither of us can understand, manned by who knows how many bad guys with attitude and –oh yeah- we’re in a giant mason jar.” Amanda folded her arms over her chest. “None of this solves the problem of imminent torture.”

“Everything ends. Even pain.”

“Yeah, great, thank you Dalai Lama. _Unfortunately_ , not all of us have been practicing on how to repress everything we feel since we were little pointy eared kiddos.” Amanda shrugged her shoulders. “I mean, we could always try and convince them to torture _you_ …”

“They will only torture you if you do not tell them what they wish to know.”

“I am NOT telling them!”

“You need not tell them the truth. Tell them what they wish to hear. Stay alive. This is how we survive.”

“If I tell them how to find what they want, they _eat me_.” She jabbed a finger towards Sarek’s chest. “Then you!”

“Say that you must guide them there. Say that you must see the planet again in order to remember the way. Is that not what journalists do? Tell stories? Tell them a story.”

“Wow…I think you just managed to insult me and my chosen profession on just about every level possible.” Amanda raised her eyebrows.

“Something you did yourself in the elevator.”

“That’s different.”

“In what way?”

“You know in what way.”

“I truly do not.”

Amanda heaved a sigh and rubbed the heels of her hands into her eyes. She seethed a breath out from between bared teeth and sought some sense of calm.

Needless to say, it refused to arrive.

“And when we get to the planet and I have to lead them there?”

“That is tomorrow’s problem. Let us survive today.”

“A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.” Amanda huffed out another breath and let her head fall back.

“I do not understand.”

“Something my dad used to say. It means you have to start somewhere.” Amanda nodded to herself and dredged up a smile for Sarek from somewhere even if he probably didn’t appreciate the effort. “Survive today.”

“Survive today.” Sarek nodded in what he supposed might be encouragement.

“Okay.” Amanda managed to keep her smile for a moment more but it vanished when a hiss came from the door.

Not the hiss of an alien throat, but that of the air pressure matching that of the interior of the ship.

Amanda tried to get to her feet but the door was already open. Two aliens ducked inside, one of them grabbed Amanda by the arm and the other levelled some kind of energy rod at Sarek.

Sarek _exploded_ up out of his kneeling position and twisted violently away from the crackling tip of the rod. He backhanded it away with a vicious blow and followed up into the opening with a palm strike right to the central plate on the alien’s chest. It was staggered backwards by the blow, Sarek grappling with the alien’s arm and wrenching until something popped with a ragged scream from their captor. Sarek dropped his opponent, satisfied it was disabled lunged to get to Amanda.

Leaping straight into the crackling rod that the alien holding her had in one hand.

“Sarek!” Amanda twisted, trying to see him as he made a sound like a coughing jaguar and went down to the glass floor of the canister. Hard. “SAREK!”

Amanda tried to get to him but she was bodily hauled from their cell. She twisted violently, making them work for every step they dragged her but it became a moot point when she was hoisted up off the floor entirely and carried between the two aliens easily. She kicked and fought, doing little more than bruise her toes against the insides of her boots and tire herself out.

She was carried through the corridors, twisting and screaming the whole way. She took note of the twists and turns, the size of the ship (not as large as she had suspected) the number of crew that she could see (less than she had expected) until she was finally dragged into a room that seemed alarmingly bereft of soft furnishings.

Another alien stood there with its back to her, bent over a terminal tapping at the screen there. Aside from that, there seemed to be little else in the room aside from a drain in the middle of the floor and what looked to be another glass tube.

A glass tube large enough for someone of her size to fit in.

She decided then and there that she did not want to be in the tube.

The two aliens holding her dropped her to the floor and thrust her towards the third. She was propelled bodily to stand level with it and she reached all the way to its elbow.

Amanda looked up and blinked when confronted with the naked face of her captor for the first time. She made a small sound in the back of her throat when her first thought was ‘dinosaur’.

The alien towered over her, nearly eight feet tall, and behemoth broad in its plated armour with its exo-pack on its back. It had a broad flat head with eyes positioned on each side of its skull. Its skin was thick and appeared to have a naturally occurring armour of greenish grey scales. Silvery nictating lids opened horizontally rather than vertically like human eyelids did to reveal a sliver of golden compound retina that glittered down at her.

Amanda swallowed hard, shoving down the pointless hindbrain reaction about looking at a giant lizard. Something cold and hard settled in her gut when the alien’s gaze dropped to her neck, tracking the movement of nerves. Noting her weakness. The hard feeling compressed and compounded and felt dangerously like… _rebellion._

The alien grunted a sound at her and pointed to the screen before them.

Amanda looked down to see a modular unit had been unfolded from the wall and a topographical scan made up of vibrant reds, oranges, yellows and greens surrounded a labyrinthine warren of greys and blues and static hues. Even without the black etchings of the landscape features Amanda could recognise the blasted remains of the human colony. This was a scan of the planet. Overlaid with heat signatures.

The alien grunted again, a low thrum of a hiss deep in its throat, and pointed at the cold static area on the map. Their scanners couldn’t read it apparently. Where black delineated other features, this map did nothing to show the terrain within the twisting turns that Amanda knew to reside there.

Amanda thought of what she had seen. She thought of what Sarek had said. She thought about surviving. She thought about the tazer rods they had carried. She thought about the enraged sound of pain that stoic Sarek had made as he had fallen. She thought about how he had lain so still on the floor of their cell. Only there because he had tried to protect her.

She thought about how really shitty this day had been and how _royally_ pissed she was.

Amanda draped her arms behind her back, clasping one wrist in the opposite hand and hummed as she looked down at the screen. She pursed her lips in consideration and then looked back at the alien.

“No sense of movement to the piece. The colour choice is uninspired, the contrasting hues give a real sense of disarray and confusion. The overall meaning gets _lost_ in there somewhere.” Amanda watched as the alien’s third eyelids opened wider and wider with each word, more glittering cold revealed with every syllable. “It’s almost like the artist is looking for something he will NEVER. FIND. I would pity him if he weren’t so talentless. All in all, I’ve seen better with a blacklight in an Orion trade ship.”

The alien _screamed_. Its maw gaped wide to reveal serrated rows of teeth longer than her fingers, a blueish forked tongue and the black hole of a gullet beyond. Its bite was so huge that it could easily have spanned her entire skull and finished her with a single crunch.

Of course, with its mouth so wide like that and its eyes being where they were, the alien didn’t see her move until her thumb was buried in its eye socket to the second knuckle.

The screaming took on a different pitch and Amanda was hauled away from the now howling alien. Her feet didn’t even touch the floor before she was hurled into the glass tube on the other side of the room hard enough for her back to smack into the opposite side and for her brain to slosh around in her skull.

Amanda caught herself as the alien, clutching at its eye with one clawed hand hissed at her with a guttural and angry sound. Its free hand slammed down on a control and the tube spun around Amanda, sealing her in the coffin small space.

Amanda lifted her hand, her thumb dripping with bloodied vitreous fluids from a burst eyeball and she drew a smiley face on the inside of the glass.

The alien punched another command into the panel and Amanda looked down as the grate beneath her feet flooded with a gelatinous liquid. It surged into the narrow tube, reaching her ankles, her knees, her hips in seconds. It was _shockingly_ cold and she began to shiver almost immediately.

The liquid rose over her waist, her ribs, her chest. It was so cold it was already difficult to breathe even without the knowledge that she was about to be drowned pounding in her head.

Amanda sucked in one last breath before the gel closed over her head and she forced her eyes open. She kept her calm expression. She shivered violently. So cold it hurt all over but forced a smile onto her face. Bared all of her teeth in the blur that must have been the alien on the other side of the glass through the gel.

Her lungs burned, her skin scorched with the cold, everything hurt. Everything seared. She was so cold.

Amanda kept her smile as the alien bared its teeth at her through the glass of the tank she was trapped in.

She extended her middle finger in a jaunty salute.

She’d been to Andoria in midwinter. They were going to have to do better than this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the feedback I've been getting, folks. It's super enjoyable to know you guys are liking this.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Amanda is opinionated and Sarek is alarmed. 
> 
> I think that pretty much sums up their relationship tbh.

**Chapter 5 – Situation Decidedly Abnormal**

**_An Unspecified Time Later, the Cell…_ **

Sarek’s eyes flashed open and he was pleased to note that he had retained the vision in both of them now that the swelling had subsided. That was a secondary consideration, however, the door had just opened and two of their captors stood with their rifles trained upon him.

He remained precisely where he was, legs folded beneath him, his hands resting on his thighs. His eyes followed their every move. If they were unnerved at all by his fierce regard, he could not tell. Both rifles were primed, one trained on his central body mass and the other upon his head. Sarek wondered briefly if they were able to fire the rifles within the cell without the ricochet killing one of their own or causing a hull breach. He was distracted from such thoughts when Amanda reappeared.

A third alien ducked into the cell, it held Amanda with one massive hand spanning the back of her neck. She was entirely limp in its hold, her hands and legs dragging along the floor and clunking painfully over the lip of the hatch. Amanda was tossed into the cell and Sarek lunged to catch her before her head struck the glass.

The two aliens with their weapons on him stiffened, wary of him it would seem, but forced themselves to subside when Sarek had more attention for the woman half on his lap than them. The door hissed shut behind them as they retreated and Sarek carefully turned Amanda so that he could examine her.

Sarek’s eyes roved over her, checking for injury, though he could see no immediate sign of trauma. She was soaked to the skin. Her clothes and hair coated in a filmy residue that was not water judging by the almost oily texture and the strange scent. Her pulse was incredibly faint and sluggish and her respiration slow and shallow. Amanda lolled limply in his arms, completely boneless and out cold.

Cold was perhaps more accurate than Sarek would have preferred. There were crystalline formations in the gel that may have been the beginnings of ice. Her skin was so pale it was grey in places, her eyes bruised with fatigue and her lips an unhealthy purple in colour. The tips of her fingers and presumably her toes as well were white and bloodless. Whatever they had done to her, she was on the verge of hypothermia.

Sarek hesitated not a moment more. Humans may have a much greater tolerance for the cold than Vulcans did, but they still had their limits even within the extremes of their own planet. He had been briefed about staying out of the water in the winter months in San Francisco (as if he would ever attempt to swim with his density) as the life expectancy could plummet to mere minutes for even humans if immersed in the icy sea.

He reached for the fastenings of his tunic and rapidly unhooked them. It was mere moments to strip the long sleeved garment from his body even if it was sullied with blood and ripped at the seams in places. He hesitated only when he reached for the hem of her sopping tank top.

Sarek pushed his qualms aside, he did this in the name of prolonging her life and worked quickly and efficiently. He stripped Amanda from her freezing clothes, his concern for her welfare growing when he found the rest of her body to be as bloodless and pale as her face had been. He worked her feet from her boots and noted that her toes had a bluish tinge to them also. Not good. Decidedly not good.

Sarek worked Amanda into his tunic one limp arm after the other and quickly fastened her into it. The sleeves hung down over the ends of her fingers and the hem that hung to mid thigh on him reached to her knees. He realised fully then that she was so much smaller than he.

He hoisted her up into his arms again, wrapping his arms around her torso. He had to heat up her core first or the blood rushing back from her chilled extremities would send her organs into shock and shut down.

He tucked her face under his chin so he could measure the slow huff of her breath against his skin, ignored the wet cloy of her hair and rubbed his hands briskly up and down her back. 

It took several minutes of such action but Amanda began to slowly regain her senses. Her limbs twitched in an uncoordinated fashion, her breathing deepened and quickened and finally she began to shiver almost convulsively. She shook herself awake.

“Mmm?” She tried to move and speak before she was able but Sarek did not release her even when she pushed weakly at his chest. She was still far too cold.

“You have been returned to the cell. You were soaked and hypothermic when they returned you. I apologise but I had to strip you of your wet clothes and do my best to warm you.”

“N- -!” Amanda tried again to speak but dissolved in a wracking wet cough that seemed to come from deep within her chest.

She curled into him instinctively, her hands fisting in the thin material of his undershirt and clung to him until the great whooping coughs subsided. She sagged into him, clearly utterly exhausted, her slight frame heaving with the effort of every breath and Sarek could do nothing but continue to share his body heat.

He was beginning to surmise that his captors had very little interest in keeping them both alive.

“Not a problem.” Her voice was a raw croak when she finally managed to speak. Her head lolled against his shoulder, she didn’t have the strength to hold herself up and Sarek decided it would be illogical to let her fall over. “Thank you. How long?”

“I am uncertain. Their weapon rendered me unconscious when they took you.”

“How long…since y’woke?” Amanda’s voice sounded tortured. Raw from screaming possibly.

“An hour and thirty-seven minutes.” Sarek admitted.

She was quiet for so long that he thought she had slipped into unconsciousness again. He tilted his head to hear her better over the thrum of the engines all around them.

“Felt…longer.”

“What did they do? Are there further injuries I should attempt to tend?”

Amanda made a sound to the negative which he surmised meant that she was uninjured.

“Drowned me.”

Sarek could not prevent the visceral flash of fear that stung low in his gut. He did not outwardly react but he was surprised. Of all the methods of torture he might have suspected, he had not expected them to actually let her asphyxiate in what passed for water on their ship.

“Let me drown. Hauled me out for resuss and back in again. Works better when the water is cold. Better chance of bringing me back if I’m near frozen. Not a lot of questioning. Trying to break me.” Amanda worked hard to relate the information to him. He supposed she wanted him to know in the event that he would be taken and tortured next. “Didn’t ask anything. Not after…I took his eye.”

“His eye?”

“Big one. Maybe leader.” Amanda shivered harder for a moment and curled as deep into Sarek as she could.

Luckily for her, Vulcans appeared to be at least half space heater. He was very warm and she was very grateful that he’d put a hold on any tactile aversion long enough for her to stave off frostbite. She rallied herself to tell him as much as she could because he needed to know.

“Reptiles. They wear…hot suits, I think. Helps them stay active. Cold blooded maybe. Scaled skin, big teeth, bigger bite. Third eyelids. Compound retinas. Pop like roast tomatoes if you can stick your thumb in there.”

“Noted.” Sarek searched through his memories of all the reptilian species he had heard of. He could think of none so large as those that had captured himself and Amanda nor any that were so inherently aggressive or technologically advanced. “Compound retinas?”

“They see heat.” Amanda nodded into his neck. “Their map was thermal.”

Sarek slotted the information into its pertinent places as she was able to pass it on. There were still far too many gaps in his knowledge for his preference but he knew more now than he had before and the aliens could not say the same.

“Place they want on the map is static.” She said suddenly as if just remembering.

“The place they want? The area on which you trespassed on the planet?”

Amanda nodded minutely in the affirmative.

“Can you describe the landscape? Tell me what it looked like physically?”

“Hellscape.” Her voice croaked, she was running out of words. “Black sharp rock. Shiny. Magnetic. Instruments don’t work.”

“Mineral deposits in rock formations have been known to interfere with various mapping techniques.”

“Messes with their head maybe.” She whispered, slipping towards unconsciousness again. “Komodos on Earth…hate magnets.”

Sarek had no idea what a Komodo was. There were simply far too many animals on Earth’s varied climates both on land and sea to memorise before a visit. Sarek had been briefed on any land predator that may come across him in the continent of the Northern Americas. He had even been told of some of the larger predatory birds that flew over the landscape and the horrifying apex predators of the ocean. He had no memory of what a komodo might be though.

“A komodo is a reptile?” He hazarded a guess.

“Big…dragony bastard.” Amanda nodded weakly and seemed to slump into him once more, the last of her strength leaving her. “Hold me?”

“Of course.” She was likely to expire if he didn’t.

Amanda nodded, her endurance done, and slumped into the dark again.

**_Hours Later…_ **

Sarek noted that humans seemed to recover from trauma remarkably quickly.

After sleeping for several hours, Amanda had woken and been much more alert and active. They had discussed everything she had seen of the ship, heard when she had been escorted through it and everything she had seen of the aliens. They exhausted every hypothesis they could think of as to the potential weaknesses of their captors and any advantages they might have over them which seemed to be precious few.

Amanda had seemed to take most of it in her stride. She was evidently shaken by her experiences with the aliens and their unique manner of torture. Something Sarek empathised with more than he had expected he would. The thought of drowning once never mind repeatedly was…unsettling.

Still, traumatised or not, she seemed determined to ignore such emotional baggage in the name of surviving their current situation. She had almost cheerfully informed him that it wouldn’t be the first time she had been to therapy and that if she was there it meant she had survived.

This had led to Sarek inquiring that she clarify what she meant about ‘therapy’ which in turn had led to a discussion of mental health. Humans apparently put a premium on this as their mental health and physical health were intertwined. They could suffer from neurological conditions which meant their brains did not produce enough or the correct neurotransmitters nor their receptors which could lead them to sicken and die.

Sarek had been internally appalled and Amanda had been vocally so when he had admitted that Vulcans did not have the concept of mental health in the same way. They could suffer from neurological conditions, certainly, but these could be treated by close family members or priests until the condition was suppressed sufficiently for the individual to function properly.

Amanda had seemed greatly distressed by this and had turned her attention to her clothes to see if they had dried rapidly in the recycled air of their cell.

They had and she had set to changing back into her own garments. She had seemed amused when Sarek had turned his back to afford her some privacy, commenting that he had seen it all before but Sarek remained resolute in diverting his attention.

Which was how he found himself staring at the blue plasma of the warp exhaust streaming from the back of the ship and hypothesising that such a trail might be easily followed by Starfleet if they but knew to look for it. He hoped they did.

For though Amanda might have survived the repeated drownings relatively unscathed, Sarek did not hold out the same hope for himself should he be subjected to the same treatment. Nor Amanda if she was subjected repeatedly to such things. He did not at all believe that she was as accepting of her situation as she appeared. Now that he knew more of human mental health, he was greatly concerned for hers.

“I’m decent.”

Sarek tilted his head, indicating he had heard her and turned so that he could see her once more.

She did look more at peace with herself dressed in her own clothes once more. They were stiff from having dried covered in the gel she had drowned in. It flaked away in places and chafed uncomfortably against her skin, but she’d rather have them on with the option of stripping them off again if the situation occurred again.

Amanda swept ineffectually at the gel that had dried on her tank top and was somehow glad that she had stripped her favoured jacket off much earlier in their adventure. She did hope she’d get it back at some point. She loved that stupid coat.

“Is your temperature normalised?”

“Yeah. Humans can bounce back pretty quick from that sort of thing. I don’t seem to have any frostbite though, which is good. Must be something in the gel. Maybe it does something to make me believe I’m colder than I am.” Amanda sat down rather than risk falling over.

The drowning thing was an ass kicking and a half. Terrorising no doubt, she hadn’t been kidding about taking her ass straight to therapy if she survived this particular brand of bullshit, but it was the lack of food and water that was really doing her in. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast which had been who knew how long ago and that had consisted of a PowerBar in the lift with Sarek.

“Do you mean to say that you think the gel can send incorrect signals through your central nervous system?” Sarek was learning a lot about human physiology today it would seem.

“Could be. More likely that it’s psychosomatic though.”

Sarek blinked slowly, in the manner that Amanda had come to recognise meant he was trying to parse a word in Standard that he hadn’t come across before.

“A psychosomatic condition is when the human mind tricks the body into believing something is happening when it isn’t. So, if I believed I should be freezing to death then my body would react as if I was even if the physical conditions I was in might not have necessarily led to that.”

“This is…a common condition amongst humans?”

“Hmmm, I wouldn’t think so. I don’t know any studies or figures but we can certainly be more susceptible to it if our mental faculties are compromised. Like if we’re hypnotised, under a lot of drugs or –y’know- being tortured for a couple of hours.”

“So, to clarify, it would be in theory possible to simply…talk a human to death?”

“A theory I’ve been working on proving since I was posted in the HQ Press Corps.” Amanda nodded with a smirk and tried to further explain when Sarek made the face that she had internally dubbed ‘scared/alarmed/the human is doing something weird again’. “Our brains control every aspect of our bodies. If the brain can be tricked then it can essentially order the body to react to stimulus that doesn’t exist in the physical realm. As I say, not a common happenstance though.”

“Though you believe this has happened to you as recently as three hours ago.”

“It was a guess. It’s not like my conscious mind can differentiate between what is conscious and what is subconscious.”

Sarek closed his eyes on an extended blink, inhaling deeply through his nose and exhaling slowly once more. When he opened his eyes to study her once more, there was something very determined in his gaze.

“Again, to clarify, if our captors do not torture you to death, your own brain may complete the task for them?”

“Well, I’m sure there are lots of other things that could kill me first but, yeah, in a nutshell.”

Sarek made a sound low in his throat that he probably meant to be contemplative but seemed very close to being a growl.

“Take it Vulcans don’t have that little fun setting in their brains either?”

Sarek shook his head in the negative.

“Well, I suppose if you did, you’d just lobotomise it out of them, wouldn’t you?”

Sarek’s eyes met hers and she looked away from him.

“Sorry.” Her mouth twisted. “Actually no I’m not. That’s fucking barbaric.”

Sarek simply blinked at her.

“I don’t understand.” She hunched her shoulders in a shrug. “I don’t want to either. Maybe this is a ‘needs of the many’ thing but…sometimes the needs of the one are just as important.”

Sarek considered her viewpoint for a moment and cocked his head in a half nod.

“Not all Vulcans…would choose to do such a thing to their family. There are more progressive elements that attempt that which is more like human therapy. Or would if they knew it was an option.”

Amanda’s mouth twisted and she heaved a sigh.

“Something at least. Not terribly enlightened of me, I know, but some parts of other cultures are just…hard to get my head round. I’m working on it.”

“It is an emotional response.” Sarek nodded. “Though perhaps an understandable one. Attempting to be more understanding and accepting of other cultures is an admirable pursuit. One which my own people might benefit from also.”

“You’re very kind.” Amanda spoke almost to herself, gazing out at the streaks of light streaming around them in subspace. “Is kindness logical?”

Sarek considered a moment, examining the question from multiple angles. He had not had it posed to him before. Perhaps Vulcans did not have a concept of kindness but they did know of mercy, generosity, sharing of resources to better the community.

“Perhaps kindness is the most logical thing.” He decided after a moment and did not understand why she smiled but thought it better than the alternative.

The hatch clanked and hissed as it unlocked and any trace of relaxation left Amanda entirely. She bolted to her feet, every muscle in her body tensing and Sarek followed her to stand at her shoulder. He was not as visibly frightened as she was but certainly… _coiled_.

The hatch swung open and the alien rifles nosed in, focussed on Sarek and the third alien ducked in, hand already outstretched for one of them.

Sarek’s eyes glittered, his chin tilting down to widen his field of vision and he made the calculations on the variables. How to disable the alien in the cell whilst using it as a shield to stop him from being immolated in a hail of disruptor fire.

Such calculations stalled when the alien seemed to notice something about Amanda. It jerked to a halt, a garbled sound coming from within its helm and it stepped back out of the hatch just as quickly to stand level with its comrades.

Sarek’s eyes darted back and forth between them as a discussion was held amongst the three. They gestured to Amanda several times and seemed to come to an agreement.

The hatch slammed closed again.

“Well, that’s concerning on a number of levels.” Amanda noted mostly to herself and hurriedly dropped her hand when she realised she had been gripping Sarek’s arm. Whether to keep herself grounded or him from flinging himself at an alien, she wasn’t entirely sure. “Sorry.”

“Understandable, no apology necessary.” Sarek turned his head to look down at her. He studied her minutely and considered for long moments. “It is concerning.”

“You mean being kidnapped by giant laser rifle wielding dinosaurs _isn’t_ concerning?” Amanda raised her eyebrows. “To clarify.”

Sarek’s eyes became hooded and she read that as wry amusement. Whether that was accurate or not was anyone’s guess but trying to read his microexpressions was possibly the only thing keeping her this side of bonkers.

“They were surprised by something. Perhaps your recovery. It has led them to change their approach. Their next actions will be harder to predict.”

“Maybe they’ve decided I’m a tough old broad and just to let me go home.” Amanda pressed her lips together when he looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “A woman can dream, can’t she?”

“I would prefer you did not. Your subconscious is perhaps the most detrimental factor to your health in this scenario.”

“That’s not…entirely without merit.” Amanda admitted after a moment, reviewing their past conversation.

“It is likely that they are devising a different method of interrogation. It may be harder to endure than the first.”

Amanda swallowed hard and then forced herself to shrug.

“It is logical to be afraid.”

“Also pointless.” Amanda snapped at then forced herself to quiet. They were all each other had. If they wanted to get out of this alive then they had to work together. “You don’t speak for no reason. Why bring it up? You think I didn’t realise?”

“As I have said, I had not considered your own capacity to do yourself injury. If you are to survive this, you must do so mentally as well as physically. From what you have told me, any physical trauma weighed upon you may be compounded by your subconscious.”

“Well…yeah, human brains can be pretty resilient though. I might end up blocking a bunch of things out that will come back to haunt me at a later date, but I’ll live.” Amanda caught another ghost of expression in his eyes and if she’d had to guess she would have said that this one was…troubled. “It’s not like I can control it, Sarek. That’s why it’s called the ‘sub’ conscious.”

“What if you could?”

“Well, if I could, I’d be a monk in Tibet and not a reporter.” Amanda smirked. She didn’t know how to explain to him that she didn’t have that tool in her kit. She couldn’t just repress everything like he did.

“To clarify; what if I could do it for you?”

“Be tortured instead of me?! That sounds like an awful idea.”

“You misunderstand. There may be a way for me to lend you…mental fortitude. To aid you in controlling your more visceral reactions to what is done to you. I could, in essence, keep you whole. Mentally.”

“Uuuhhh…I sense a ‘but’ here? Vulcans are only tactile telepaths. I doubt they’re going to let you come in and hold my hand. Especially considering you might have ripped the arm off another one.”

“That arm was dislocated at most and there _is_ a way to maintain a connection without physical contact.”

“Again, sensing there’s something you’re not sharing with the class, Ambassador. If I didn’t know better I’d say that you should be blushing.”

“I will not deny that it is…an intimate thing. I would not suggest it if I did not believe that circumstances required it.”

“Okay?” Amanda remained unconvinced and Sarek decided to simply explain things. He did not know how long they had before their captors devised a new method of torture and returned for her.

“Have you heard of a Vulcan Mind Meld?”


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 – Needs Must…Apparently**

Sarek watched Amanda digest the information he had given her.

He had not wanted to overwhelm her as their circumstances were already overwhelming, nor had he wanted her to be misinformed. If she chose to do this then she must be aware of all the implications. She had not given the impression that she was the sort to panic when presented new information…but she had been silent for almost a minute now.

“Miss Grayson?”

“Processing.” She murmured, a frown tugging on her features. She opened her mouth to ask a question and then seemed to change her mind.

Sarek waited as patiently as he could given the circumstances.

“So –to clarify as I’ve been hit on the head a couple of times today- this is a…permanent thing?”

“It need not be. Without maintenance, the connection between us should fade into non-existence.” Sarek was heartened that she was asking questions. Curiosity was preferable to horror.

“But we will be, according to your culture, _married_?”

“Ah, no? There is not an equivalent for humans so the analogy would be incorrect. I think that a Vulcan bond would be more intimate than a human pairing and not less.”

“Great!” Amanda’s brows rose and her eyes were wide. She cleared her throat sharply continued. Now that she had started asking questions, her training had taken over and she felt more comfortable when she was the one doing the interrogating. “So, uh, this has been done before? Between a Vulcan and a human?”

“It has not been officially recorded but there have been instances of bonds in the past. These have not been recognised by the Vulcan High Council as of yet. There have been unforeseen side effects but nothing harmful. To either party.”

“But –if you wanted to- you could just…get into my head and knock over the filing cabinets until I could…’function in Vulcan society once more’?”

Sarek rocked back from her to rest his weight more firmly on his heels. His chin raised and he blinked slowly.

“Oh shit, I offended you.” Amanda looked as surprised as Sarek looked noncommittal to everything. “Uh, sorry?”

“It would- -I…” Sarek exhaled forcefully through his nose and gathered himself. “I would never.”

“You can’t promise that. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about Vulcans is that you kind of redefine ‘peer pressure’. What happens if someone finds out and decide that it’s embarrassing for your society at large? How could I hope to stop you if you wanted to?”

“I would. _Not._ ” Sarek reiterated in a low voice, looking her directly in the eye. “Those that find themselves…on the outskirts of Vulcan society might well be posted on another planet. Given an occupation that would keep them from returning to their family in order to further spread a disruptive influence.”

Amanda put all of that together very quickly.

“Who?”

“Is it important?”

“I don’t have your tells yet, I don’t know when you’re lying and you have to admit that you’ve got a BIG ask for me right now. So, who did you get kicked out of the boy’s club for?”

“My son.” Sarek inhaled deeply, suppressing the swell of emotion that came with thoughts of Sybok.

Not all of them positive and none of those negatives were the boy’s doing. He had been wronged and…still. Sarek was doing what he could for his progeny. He would continue to do so until the High Council found a way to block him entirely and then he would become more creative.

If they survived this, he might well enlist Amanda’s help on the matter. He was intrigued by the notion of ‘therapy’.

“What happened?” Her voice was lower, quieter, gentle in a manner he had not thought her to favour.

“He was injured. Psychically. It occurred when his mother, T’Rea, died unexpectedly. She was…there are degrees of adherence to the ways of Logic. She was…devout. It led her to connecting to Sybok in a manner that is uncommon amongst most parents and their children. Should they wish their child to have great independence. She became ill and would not seek treatment, turning to meditation instead. When she died…Sybok attempted to keep her…” Sarek did not know how to make her understand.

“Keep her here. He didn’t want to lose his mom. She nearly took him with her?”

“Yes.” Sarek dipped his chin in a nod and forced his hands to relax on his knees. “He has not been the same since. I have been asked to perform the ritual upon him in order to cut him off from the pain. This will, however…reduce him.”

“Purge him of emotions entirely?” Amanda guessed correctly and her jaw clenched when Sarek nodded. “Why did you refuse?”

“I do not believe he should be injured in such a way when he has already suffered a trauma. I will not compound my son’s life altering circumstance by ignoring it for the ease of those around him. Others can leave his presence if they find it unsettling, Sybok cannot.”

“He’s demonstrative, isn’t he? Emotionally I mean. Makes other Vulcans uncomfortable.” It was a guess from Amanda, but an educated one.

“He has harmed no one.”

“I didn’t think he had.” Amanda spoke gently again and smiled a little. “You should bring him to Earth. We used to be prejudiced about disabilities like that but that went out with Capitalism.”

“It is my intention to.” Sarek nodded.

“So I guess that answers my question on what your wife might think of all this.” Amanda looked down at her hands and considered a moment more. “Are you linked to Sybok?”

“Not to the same depth that his mother was. I was…unaware that she had bonded with him in such a manner. He is aware of my presence, mentally, I hoped to offer that stability to him with the void left when his mother died. I do not know that it is enough.”

“So…if you and I did the bonding thing, would Sybok feel it too? I don’t want to worsen what’s already happened to him.”

Sarek blinked at her, surprised that she would refuse a method of prolonging her own life for the comfort of a child she had never met…but then, humans tended to pack bond with almost everything they came across. They anthropomorphised inanimate objects, he should hardly find it unusual that she would feel empathy for an injured child.

“The bond is not…that deep?” Sarek struggled to put it into words. There were several words in Vulcan that would describe the situation but she would not understand them anyway. “I am a steadying presence, it is not invasive.”

“Can he sense your distress now?” Amanda frowned.

“I am not distressed.”

“Sarek, we could both die any minute, at least some part of you is distressed even if it’s buried down past your toes.” Amanda drawled at him.

“I am in control of my emotions. I keep them from travelling through the bond in such a manner. I do not wish to burden my son more than he already is.”

“Okay. So it’s not permanent and it’s not going to hurt any of us, right?”

“I would not have suggested it if I thought so.”

“I’ll take that.” Amanda picked at the frayed hem of her stained trousers and hefted a sigh. “You’ve spoken of depth. That implies there are varying degrees of a bond like this. How…how deep would it have to be?”

Sarek considered a moment, struck by the language barrier again. He considered her query carefully. He did not want to mislead her.

“Deep.” Sarek admitted. “There is no other way for me to lend you the mental discipline I have spent a lifetime cultivating. I would have to be ‘in your head’ to quite an extent. I would not intrude further than was necessary but there will be a level of intimacy that may be…disconcerting.”

“Okay.” Amanda rubbed at her eyes. “Like sex? More or less intimate?”

Sarek blinked, stifled his urge to change the subject and reminded himself that she had no frame of reference for the situation he was describing. She was attempting to understand with experiences that she had collated previously.

“More?” Sarek considered that and then nodded once. “I have witnessed elder married couples of humans that appear to share a non-verbal connection. This, as I understand it, is cultivated over decades together. It would be similar to that but without the time component.”

“Would you be able to read my thoughts?”

“To begin with, yes. I shall attempt to teach you how to…remain within your own mental space unless you wished to share something. Time may not allow for such things though given our circumstances.”

“No kidding.” Amanda blew out a breath, her hands fisting on her knees. She nodded once. She worried her lower lip with her teeth and considered him a moment more. “I’d like you to…not look.”

Sarek tilted his head.

“You shouldn’t know what I know. If the lizards find out then they’ll start to torture you too and I don’t think you could handle that for both of us.”

“I have risen to greater challenges.” Sarek tilted his head the other way but acceded her point.

“Well, there’s a story.” Amanda managed something of a smile and then nodded again, seemingly to herself. “So, not permanent, it won’t hurt you, Sybok or myself, it will stop me from telling the overgrown iguanas what they want to know and you won’t go rummaging where you shouldn’t?”

“Of course not. This is a matter of consent. I will do nothing you do not allow.”

“Anything else I should know?”

Sarek considered the question from all angles.

“This will not be a one way connection. You may…feel or sense things from myself. Things which you may have to adapt to. Vulcans do not suffer a lack of emotion. We simply choose not to express it.”

“I don’t think there’s anything simple about it but, screw it. Let’s go.” Amanda braced herself, ready for what he asked of her. 

“You consent?”

“I consent to a mind meld with yourself for the discussed terms.” Amanda offered him a lopsided smile, seeming to find the situation amusing in some way. “What do I do?”

“Remain where you are and attempt to relax. This will not hurt.” Sarek shifted closer to her, within arm’s reach. “We may stop at any time.”

“Okay.” She appeared to be nervous but not afraid. Sarek thought this understandable. His proposal was…unorthodox.

“I will touch your face. This is acceptable?”

“Yeah.” Amanda nodded and watched as he lifted his hand, his long fingers splaying so that he could reach the points on her face that would help him forge a connection. She did not move away from him and in fact turned her head a little so that he could reach her more easily.

“Breathe with me.” He instructed her, lifting his other hand into position as well.

Amanda’s gaze dipped to his chest and she hitched her breathing, matching his inhale and exhale.

“Shall I proceed?”

“I’m fine.” Amanda restrained herself from nodding in case she dislodged his hold on her. She had known he ran hotter than she did. His body heat had already saved her life but his fingers seemed to scorch her almost where they touched her face.

She could sense him already. Like she had when he had lifted her out of the elevator. She had the sense of…him? A presence close by. She could only liken it to knowing that there was someone sharing a bed. She could feel his mind in the same way that she could feel body heat or the dip of a mattress under his weight.

“Repeat after me; my mind to your mind. My thoughts to your thoughts.” Sarek kept his voice low and his tone level.

“My mind to your mind. My thoughts to your- -oh!” Amanda sucked in a breath when the connection sprang up.

His presence intensified in every sense she had and a few she’d never considered before. His mind seemed to bloom into her own, unfurling in her head and she was pulled towards him. Like his consciousness had a gravity that tugged on hers.

Amanda resisted a moment, unsure of what would happen should she step into him but…it wasn’t frightening. It was new and different, like seeing new colours or stepping onto a new planet for the first time, breathing air that wasn’t recycled from Earth. There was a sense of warmth and safety that seemed to belt from him in waves.

There were no words, not yet, the connection wasn’t that deep, but he was asking her to join him in this new space created between them.

Amanda mentally shrugged, surmised that she had come this far, and gave in to him.

She fell into Sarek willingly and it felt very close to coming home.

**_Later…_ **

Amanda jerked back to herself some time later and looked up at the glass ceiling arching over her head. She blinked rapidly, took an internal systems report and was heartened to realise that she felt… _great_.

She…was also in Sarek’s lap.

“Sorry!” Amanda bolted upright, nearly cracking her forehead against his chin in the process but they both managed to dodge one another. She spun on her backside, swinging around to face him and halted only when her knee bumped against his.

Amanda was caught suddenly wrong footed. She could feel it. The connection between them. Like a rope going through her skull to plug into her spinal cord. It wasn’t uncomfortable but she was _aware_ of him. She was aware of his body heat, his steadying presence. She was aware that he felt…things. She understood now that the expression he watched her with was faint amusement but also relief that she did not seem overly unsettled.

“I’m fine.” She told him.

“I know.” Sarek nodded to her.

“This is, uh, weird.” Amanda watched him, reading him through their new connection. His eyelid flickered and she tried to back off. She wasn’t entirely sure how though. “Sorry.”

“No need to apologise. This is different from other bonds I have experienced also. It will be a learning curve.”

“No shit.” Amanda blew out a breath and focussed more on herself for a moment rather than what she could sense from him. “You’re…doing that.”

“The pain in your midsection is a distraction you do not need. I have dulled the sensation by –ah- taking some of the weight?” Sarek considered his wording a moment more. “It will still pain you if the tissues become damaged, I cannot stop that, though I can mute the pains brought on by the healing process.”

“Handy.” Amanda admitted after a moment.

“Is this overstepping a boundary?” Sarek felt concern. _She_ could feel that.

“No. I just…didn’t realise how much it bothered me. Thank you.”

“I will do what I can to aid you.” Sarek dipped his chin in a nod once more.

“Why?” Amanda frowned. Seemed odd that she’d choose to remember such a basic question now but…she hadn’t realised before.

Vulcans really did feel what humans felt, perhaps even more deeply and violently than humans did, so he must have similar motivators no matter how much he had logic as his go-to.

“It is the right thing to do. To aid those we can when we can.” Sarek blinked at her and Amanda smiled, she couldn’t help it.

He really was a very simple man in many ways. Complicated in others, for sure, but it was honestly that simple to him. He could help so he would. He abhorred violence but recognised that it had a place in their universe but if he could shield those less able to survive it than himself then he would. Because it was right.

“You’re a good person, Sarek.”

“I believe the same of you, Miss Grayson.”

“I really think, if we’re married according to some tribes, that you should call me Amanda.” She grinned when she felt a flicker of amusement from him. She had _known_ he had a sense of humour.

“Very well. Amanda.” Sarek nodded to her and shifted a little.

Amanda realised only then that her leg was still resting against his and she looked down at the contact with surprise. She moved as if to shift away but felt…negative from him.

“It gives you comfort.” Sarek reminded her when she made to move away. “This minimal physical contact does not discomfort me and it soothes you. There is no need to draw away.”

Amanda bit her lip and nodded slowly.

“Okay?”

“It is.” He accompanied the words with a brush of…reassurance. It flushed dawn pink against her brain. Like waking to the light of the sunrise through closed eyelids. Familiar and warm.

“Wow.” Amanda mentally shifted gears as best she could. “This is a hell of a thing.”

Sarek tilted his head, considering the meaning of her words and realising that she did not mean it in a negative. The bond, in its infancy as it was, had already greatly improved communications between them.

He stiffened reacting to her fear before it even reached her conscious mind. She had heard something, sensed something, and Sarek was on his feet, pulling her behind him before the hatch even hissed as it opened.

Their captors again.

Amanda blinked, her head spinning a little with all the extra sensory everything going on alongside the… _stormfront_ of aggression that seemed to roar up from within Sarek. He stared down the aliens that had taken them and she could _feel_ the thrum of a growl trying to rise from his chest to his throat.

“You didn’t mention that part.” Amanda told him. She continued when she felt a silent query for her to expand on her point. “That this would make you a little…irrational about my safety.”

“You did not ask and my desire to preserve your life is independent of the bond.” Sarek shifted his weight, putting himself more firmly between her and the alien that cautiously stepped into their cell with them.

Sarek’s body was practically humming with the restrained urge to attack these people that threatened him and Amanda but her hand on his back between his shoulder blades settled him a little.

She was perhaps right, he had not expected this strength in a bond so new but it seemed that they were simply compatible. The bond came with a great many instincts that were otherwise easily repressed but Amanda was –incredibly- a steadying influence. She had no desire for him to attack the aliens. She wanted him in once piece.

The alien reached up and removed its helm. Sarek watched with interest but did not make any move to let Amanda out from behind him to see more. She had seen their faces before after all.

“Your need. To. Protect your. Queen. Is admirable.” The translator spoke from within the alien’s helm and Sarek studied it.

It was slighter than the others. Slimmer but no less imposing in height. The eyes were blue behind the barely parted third eyelids and this one possessed a tail.

A female.

They were matriarchal?

“Come.” The female stepped back, out into the corridor and the two males flanking her receded out of her reach.

Out of the reach of her slinking tail also. It curled back and forth, covered in yet more matt black plating of the EV suit armour they all wore. Ceramic blades glinted sharp and deadly along the ventral edge of her tail. Sarek had little doubt that she could separate limbs from bodies with very little effort and a meaningful flick.

She looked back in and rocked to one side, seemingly trying to make eye contact with Amanda.

“Trusted. Enemy Queen. Follow.” Stolen words were projected towards them once more.

“The fuck does that mean?” Amanda frowned and murmured mostly to herself. “How can I be a trusted enemy?”

“Male too. Bring him.” The matriarch expanded and Amanda ducked around Sarek so that she could see the big female more clearly.

She attempted to read the expression on the reptile’s face but…all she was really getting was teeth.

Amanda glanced at Sarek and realised that he was mentally calculating how to disable and maim everyone he could reach and how to get to the others before he got blown up. She’d rather he didn’t.

“Why?” Amanda turned to the Matriarch.

The big lizard cocked her head, blinking in that odd way of hers, and thrummed a sound deep in her chest. It might have been some horror of a chuckle.

“Not fitting. This. Space. I will. Take. You to. Better.”

“ _Why_?” Amanda demanded again.

“It is this way.”

Amanda stiffened when she recognised that voice. That had been Flaherty. This was one of the aliens that had picked him apart. Amanda’s lip curled and it was Sarek that restrained her this time. His fingers curling loosely around her wrist.

“You killed my friend. He was a kid.” Amanda told her.

“Yes.” If the matriarch felt remorse it wasn’t visible. “You trespassed.”

“Those are not equal.” Amanda spoke from behind bared teeth.

“Not yet.” The matriarch cocked her head the other way, seeming somehow amused. “Come.”

Amanda sighed, she didn’t think they had much of a choice. Sarek’s fingers rested over the pulse throbbing in her wrist and she felt his agreement. There was still a very dark part of him that wanted to beat his fists bloody against the beings that had hurt her, that had frightened her to a depth that he had suspected but had not realised until the bond, but he was still in control. He was still logical and it was logical to do as their captors asked.

They need only survive until help arrived.

“Alright,” Amanda stepped forward, forcing the lizard to retreat further into the corridor to make room for her, “I’ll bite. Where we going?”

“I know. You. Bite. Little. Queen.” The matriarch was definitely amused now. “This is why. You come. With. Me.”

“Where?”

“My place.” The matriarch bared all of her teeth in a facsimile of a smile.

Amanda had to agree with the silent notion that she picked up from Sarek through the bond.

Not good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm super pleased with the feedback I've gotten on this little story, guys. I'm glad you're enjoying it even with all the violence and everything that goes on. 
> 
> Thanks for reading and all the comments you've given. I just hope it helps y'all get through the days a little easier.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Sarek Kirks about without a shirt on. 
> 
> Don't say I'm not good to y'all.

**Chapter 7 – Her Place**

Amanda could _feel_ that Sarek was all but twitching with the urge to put himself between her and danger. She thought it a little pointless, given the circumstances, and so used his loose hold on her wrist to pull him level with her.

They walked through the convoluted corridors of the lizard’s starship, winding their way up through the decks. The lizards did not appear to have turbolifts or the equivalent and seemed to base their decks on a helical design. Presumably the female (or females) called something higher than the dungeon deck their home. The ship wasn’t large. Nowhere near as big as even the smallest Starfleet cruisers, but it more than made up for it with matt black hull plating and crimson mood lighting.

Amanda didn’t see what was wrong with a decent set of white blue LED bulbs. Something nice and bright. Help you find the dust bunnies in the corner of all the spooky corridors. It would just make maintenance easier, surely.

Sarek squeezed her wrist a little and Amanda halted her train of thought before hysteria derailed it entirely. She sucked in a deep breath of the air which had grown steadily more humid the higher they travelled and resisted the urge to wipe sweat from her brow. It was certainly hotter in the upper decks and that made sense if the ship was as open plan as it appeared. Heat rising and all that.

Still, it was stiflingly hot and Amanda worked hard not to ask for a drink of water. She was increasingly aware that she was more than a little hungry and could have done with something to drink other than the freezing gel she’d drowned in.

The matriarch led them high up into the ship, presumably just below the bridge judging by how hot it got, then turned off into an alcove. She activated the door to a room that was marginally better lit than the corridor and waved Amanda and Sarek inside.

Amanda glanced at Sarek. He looked at the males flanking them, rifles akimbo, and sent a flicker of resignation her way. He couldn’t see an alternative either.

He insisted on going first, jinking in front of Amanda before she could cross over the raised threshold of the door and into the room beyond. If it was another cell or a hotter torture chamber, Amanda didn’t know. She read faint surprise from him as she followed him through the door and stalled a little when she echoed the same sentiment.

They were…in a bedroom?

“Rest. Food and- -water. Clothes. They should fit. You.” The female pointed around the room, which was far more lavish than most apartments Amanda had frequented. “Wash through. There. I will. Return. When you are ready.”

“Ready for what?” Amanda asked before she could think better of it. That would be the reporter in her.

The matriarch cocked her head in that avian way of hers and uttered a low hiss deep in her throat. Perhaps a thinking sound.

“Ready to be…” The matriarch’s head tilted the other way as her translator tech fizzled, attempting to find a suitable recording for the word it desired. “Onomatopoeic.”

“Right.” Amanda kicked her chin up in a nod and the matriarch retreated. The door slamming shut on her spined heels and the lock clanking into place.

“Onomatopoeic?” Sarek murmured when they were alone again.

“Sounds like.” Amanda muttered mostly to herself with a frown. “Sounds like what it is?”

“Have we not sounded as we are previously?” Sarek seemed genuine in his query and Amanda rocked her head on her neck to cast some side eye his way. She sighed and forced a smile.

“Well, gotta love a translator that knows ‘onomatopoeia’ but not simple pronouns.” Her smile shrank into something smaller but somehow more genuine as she looked about their new cell.

“Standard is a very difficult language to master.” Sarek pointed out.

“Standard is derived from English and _English_ is three separate languages stacked on top of one another and wearing a trenchcoat. English waits in dark alleys to mug other languages and steal stray punctuation from them.” Amanda padded about the spacious quarters, wondering if they really had been given the matriarch’s own private rooms to use, and pawed at the clothing that had been set out for them.

Seemed simple enough. Looked like it had been replicated for them specifically as it didn’t have the elongation and shortening present in their captor’s limbs. Simple grey jumpsuits discernible in difference only due to the fact that Sarek’s were much longer than hers.

“Hmm.” Amanda rubbed the fabric between her fingers.

“What?” Sarek looked up from investigating one of the platters of food and Amanda was surprised when he approached her with a glass of water.

“These are hand stitched.” Amanda traded him one of the jumpsuits for the glass of water. “Thank you.”

“You thirst. You think them handmade?” Sarek examined the clothing and could not find a fault with her hypothesis. It required a fine eye for detail, but the stitching was not as uniform as that which a replicator would fabricate.

“Bit unusual, don’t you think?” Amanda was a little breathless after draining her cup of water. “Cosy cell, new clothes, wash facilities, food and water?”

“It is encouraging news. They mean to keep us alive.”

“Or lull us into a false sense of security.”

“My sense of security is not heightened by more aesthetically pleasing surroundings.” Sarek neatly folded the smaller jumpsuit and held it out to her. “Would you like to use the washroom first?”

Amanda opened her mouth to ask him if he was sure but of course he was sure. He was relatively fine. He had much finer control over his physicality than she did (which might have been annoying had she not been in quite urgent need of relieving herself). He would be fine until she’d had her turn.

“Thank you.” Amanda set down her cup and took her clothing from him.

“Of course.” Sarek dipped his chin in a nod and only then did he go to fetch himself some water.

She could sense from him that he was rationing what they had and was already planning on giving her the larger share.

Amanda ducked into where the bathroom was supposed to be and decided she’d pick that fight when she came to it.

The bathroom was large, cavernous even, and she supposed that made sense as some of the aliens that had captured them were nearly three metres tall –long?- whatever. It took a moment to figure out how things worked but she lost all sense of trepidation waiting for a trap to be sprung from the toilet bowl when fresh cool water sprang geyser like from a vent in the floor.

One of her more daring showers, coming up from the floor as it was, but she’d scrubbed the worst off in glorified puddles whilst in the field before. She’d even spent several months using the oil baths of Andoria one time, she was far from squeamish. She found something like soap and scrubbed herself with her clothes still on. She washed them as well as her hair and body and wrung them out, finding a spot to hang them up to dry.

The water pressure was something hair-raising so Amanda felt a little _scoured_ by the time she was done. Her pale skin was flushed pink from the abrasion of the current but she did feel clean finally and she’d take what she could get.

She wrung her hair out as best she could, combing it back into a messy knot with her fingers, doubting she’d find a hairbrush from a species that had no hair. Amanda examined her jumpsuit. The fabric was soft but surprisingly tough and inflexible when it came to attempting to stretch it.

It took some wriggling, but she managed to get into her new clothes. They were obviously built with a straight up and down species in mind. Her captors apparently didn’t see the need for accounting for mammary glands nor hips wide enough to bear live young. Perhaps they laid eggs.

The suit was a little tight across the chest and hips but she found that it closed securely enough and that she could still move freely in it. She had to roll up the cuffs on the sleeves and trouser legs several times but –for something that had been made on the fly with eyeballed measurements- it wasn’t bad.

Amanda exited the bathroom to find Sarek kneeling on the floor. He was attempting to mediate and was finding it difficult. His eyes snapped open as soon as the door to the bathroom did and Amanda almost smiled at the barely restrained relief that went through him. He powerfully disliked being unclean.

“All yours.” Amanda waved him inside and watched him disappear before turning to investigate their new jail.

The room was large. Furniture was eclectic and looked to have been collected from up and down the quadrant. There was an Orion ottoman, what looked to be something Vulcan but subtly wasn’t (Romulan maybe) in the shape of a writing desk, that was certainly a Klingon wardrobe or perhaps a weapons chest since Amanda didn’t know if Klingons ever got out of their armour. They could certainly smell like they didn’t. Tellerite banners blanketed the walls and various rugs of differing patterns were a mosaic under her bare feet.

Amanda padded about, helping herself to another cup of water and perused the food briefly before selecting a handful of the pellets made available. They smelled faintly of herbs and she nibbled on one, giving her body a chance to overreact if it was going to. The texture and smell reminded her strongly of dog kibble but she had –of course- had worse.

Anything was better than Klingon fare.

Amanda examined what other trophies –for she was certain that was what they were- she could identify and stilled when she came across something that looked unlike everything else in the room.

In fact, it only vaguely resembled the lines of the ship surrounding them. Was this made by their captors?

Amanda crouched down, examining what was in front of her and attempted to puzzle it out. It looked for all the world like some sort of boardgame. Similar to Go or Chess perhaps. Amanda gently touched the edge of the board, made up of hexagonal tiles, and her brows rose when she found it to be carved of something incredibly dense. It was lacquered like wood but heavy like stone. A resin perhaps?

Spying a cushion tucked beneath the board, Amanda tugged it free and settled herself to examine the game more thoroughly. The board was circular in shape. The hexagonal tiles mostly black but with clusters of white here and there. The white clusters were populated by pieces of red or blue. Gold pieces also littered the board, clumped in groups of two or three at seemingly equidistant points across the black tiles. A bevelled trough on each side of the board held two sets of die. Each of them with twelve sides. One with characters and the others with what looked to be hieroglyphs decorating each face.

Closer inspection matched the hieroglyphs to the gold pieces on the board.

A strategy game, obviously, but of what strategy she had no idea. It wasn’t often that strategy games employed the roll of a dice, let alone four.

Amanda frowned, drinking more water and nibbling on a kibble bit whilst she pondered it out.

It might have been wild conjecture but this was the only thing that she didn’t recognise at all in the room. She had seen the likenesses of every single other piece of furniture or decoration that had been paraded in front of them. This was a trophy room meant to intimidate much more than it was meant to be lavish guest quarters.

So why have a game? Why have a game native to the people that had taken them?

“What troubles you?”

Amanda twisted when the bathroom door opened on a cloud of steam, Sarek obviously preferred his water hotter than she did, and she stalled when confronted with…chest?

“Um…” Amanda pressed her lips together and averted her eyes. As she understood it, Vulcans were pretty private about showing skin and she had no idea why Sarek had left the bathroom stripped to the waist.

“Apologies. I followed your example of washing my soiled clothing and found only after they were wet that my suit would not fit over my shoulders. It seems that our captor’s torsos do not broaden or narrow as ours do.” Sarek looked about himself. “I could use the banner to cover myself?”

“Well, only if you can stand the heat.” Amanda risked a glance at him. “I’m looking away for you more than I am me.”

“My nudity does not offend you?”

Amanda turned her head to blatantly appraise him and shook her head in the negative.

“Unless you’ve got pincers somewhere, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before.” She smiled for him.

Sarek stalled, not entirely sure how to deal with that and decided to knot the sleeves around his hips instead.

Amanda let herself watch him, she was paid to be observant after all, and noted that he really was in spectacular physical condition. She was somehow surprised by the dark hair that dusted across his chest and down over the cobbled muscles of his stomach. Every Vulcan she had ever seen was so neatly manicured and clipped that she had assumed that it went all over but possibly not.

“Body hair offends you?” Sarek sank down beside her to examine the board game she had found. He rested on his heels, so as to more easily spring to his feet when the time came, she supposed.

“Quite the opposite. I’m just surprised that you don’t remove it like you would your beard.” Amanda found herself being distracted by the ripple of muscle under the skin of his defined arms and shoulders and cleared her throat, turning back to the game. “I think this is theirs. Everything else in this room might be stolen or the spoils of war, but I think this is theirs.”

“I find no argument with your hypothesis. I have never seen this design of game before, nor the species of our captors. It has lines reminiscent of the ship’s design.” Sarek surprised her by licking the pad of one finger and touching it to a white tile on the board. A flicker of something like disgust rippled through him with the action. “Bone.”

Amanda blinked at him.

“Bone is porous. The white tiles are made of bone.”

“Could have happily lived my whole life without knowing that.” Amanda sighed and turned back to the pieces. “The sides of the die match the gold pieces. Other than that, I don’t know how any of it works. Why would you have something random in a game of…” Amanda trailed off, studying the board once more.

“What have you seen?”

“It’s a planet.” Amanda swivelled the board on its turnstile and tilted her head. “Yeah, look, the black is the ocean, the white continents. The gold pieces are clustered at North, South, East and West. Or whatever they know in place of those.”

Sarek folded his arms, resting his elbows on his knees and studied the board. He was silent for long moments and then slowly nodded.

“What purpose of the gold pieces then?”

“Well, if this is strategy and the aim of the game is to win territory then presumably the red and blue sides do battle. War doesn’t exist in a vacuum though. There are other elements to contend with. Weather, seasons, freak accidents. Perhaps the gold pieces are…acts of god?”

Sarek picked up one of the gold pieces, examining its serpentine form and hummed deep in his throat. He glanced sideways at Amanda.

“You are really quite extraordinary.”

Amanda blinked, thrown by that for a moment.

“You must eat.” Sarek rose to his feet and then turned away from her, heading for the food platters.

If he could feel Amanda’s bafflement, he made no comment on it and Amanda decided to follow him. She had no desire to eat over the board of the game. She had an uncomfortable feeling that it would become very pertinent in her immediate future.

“You have attempted the extruded pellets?”

“Wow, you make them sound even less appetising than they are.” Amanda settled down beside him next to the low table and examined what was on offer.

They had the pitcher of water, the dog kibble, what appeared to be some sprouted seeds under a second cover and what looked to be nori sheets but a deep reddish purple in colour.

“I think the plants for our benefit. Our captors do not seem to be omnivorous.” Sarek picked up a seed and sniffed at it daintily before biting off a tiny piece to try.

“Strange. Don’t you think?”

“That they intend to feed us? I do not think it strange they wish to keep us alive until we may prove useful.”

“Thanks for the reminder. No, I meant the long shelf life food. The kibble’s probably capable of lasting a few centuries without going off, same for the dried seaweed stuff and the seeds will remain dormant until sprouted in water.” Amanda picked up one of the seeds, didn’t bother sniffing the damn thing and ate it.

If the lizards had gone to the trouble of checking their dental work to hazard a guess as to what they ate, it was unlikely that they would poison them. That and she had limited amount of RAM left for agonising over what might kill her next.

“Not bad, kind of…popcorn-y.” She glanced at Sarek. “What?”

“You are correct in your observations. Most warp capable species prefer fresh food or produce even on longer missions.”

“Salty.” Amanda winced a little at the sharp arid texture of the nori-like leaves but ate more anyway. She was used to pickled everything back home, a little salt hadn’t scared her since she was a baby. “Maybe they don’t have replicators.” Amanda glanced around the room. She certainly had seen one in her wanderings.

“Not every warp capable species has the technology.” Sarek dipped his head to acknowledge her point. He picked sparingly at the red seaweed food and ate mostly of the sprouted seeds. “Perhaps their power supply would not support such a drain.”

“Eat the dog biscuits, you need the protein.” Amanda pushed the bowl towards him and felt a flicker of his displeasure at the name she had given the pellets.

She arched a brow, daring him to refuse her and he accepted two of the tiny biscuits rather than argue with her.

“Logical choice.” Amanda murmured, pouring some water for him from the pitcher. “Isn’t it a little odd to have a whole species that nobody’s ever seen before relatively in our backyard?”

“Cestus III is several lightyears away from any other populated outpost and you said the planetoid you visited was beyond even Cestus III. Space is vast. I think it highly unlikely that we have seen even a fraction of the life this quadrant is capable of supporting.”

“They’re walking dinosaurs in black knight armour. You’d think that somebody would have seen something or said to someone…”

“I posit that gossip does not travel well in the void of space.”

“ _I_ posit that you’ve never been in a space port not run by the Feds.” Amanda levelled a look at him. “Gossip is my stock in trade and the _dead_ will tell it to you if you listen well enough.”

“I think it more likely that your exceptional observational skills and training in investigative journalism may have more to do with your collection of information than communiques from beyond the grave.” Sarek sipped his water.

“You just get me coming as well as going, don’t you?” Amanda pushed the bowl closer to him. “Have another biscuit.”

Sarek eyeballed her, changed his mind about protesting again, and ate another bit of kibble. He ate sparingly and she noticed that he was letting her have the choicest morsels first. Amanda elected to simply ply him with food rather than point out that human digestive systems were a great deal more resilient than Vulcan ones and that he would be better eating what was palatable to him while he had it.

He retaliated by pouring more water for her and watching her pointedly until she drank it.

Touché.

“True enough.” Sarek allowed after a moment of quite crunching. “I have never been on a starbase not operated by the Federation in some capacity. Do you delight in exercising outside of their purview or is it happenstance?”

“A little of both.” Amanda informed him cheerfully. She continued when she sensed faint reprove from him. “It’s not for nothing. My job is to go out there where most people don’t and see what I can see. I can’t do that from behind Federation tickertape.”

“There must be safer ways.”

“Safety sometimes gets in the way of seeing the whole picture. I can’t look at it through that kind of lens.”

“If you wished for exploration, why not join Starfleet? Why not be trained properly for such an eventuality?”

“Is there a Starfleet training course for being kidnapped by dinosaurs? I must have missed that on the syllabus when I was at career day.” Amanda drawled. “And, no, Starfleet wouldn’t do. Starfleet is the tool by which humanity effects change but they answer to the Federation which is chaired by the Earth government, amongst many others. Earth’s government is democratically decided. There can only be true democracy with an informed public.”

“You believe that Starfleet would…lie about that which it has discovered in the universe?” Sarek was mentally frowning at her, she could tell but she attempted to explain anyway.

“The truth can often be…presented in a way that is beneficial to those doing the presenting. Some of the greatest atrocities in human history have occurred when certain political, religious or military figures presented the facts and influenced public opinion in their favour. I, for one, would like to know there’s at least one person out there telling people what is happening as much as it happens as I can. I can’t always expect to be completely unbiased but I can sure as hell try.”

Sarek considered this for a long moment.

“You are a woman of strong convictions.”

Amanda blew out a breath and almost laughed.

“I try to be.”

“I find your reasoning…not entirely logical but I do not think it without merit. To educate is a worthwhile profession. Even amongst Vulcans.”

“So glad to have your approval.” Amanda smirked.

“I meant no disrespect.”

“I know. I’d have felt that.” Amanda lifted her hand as if to touch his arm and then changed her mind. He probably wouldn’t appreciate that.

She almost started in surprise when his knuckles brushed hers. She glanced down at the contact and found his much larger hand eclipse her own as he gently dragged the back of his hand over hers. His knuckles bumped against hers one way and then the other. She felt…it was supposed to be comforting. Non-threatening. Just…there.

“Humans are a tactile species, I have witnessed. It does me no discomfort to offer you that. You have been through a trauma. I will steady you in whichever way I may.”

Amanda didn’t really know what to say to that. She felt a horrible swell of emotion well up in her throat and thought that she very nearly might cry. She gulped it down rather than give into it and Sarek brushed his fingers against hers once more. He must have been aware of her distress but offered no further comment. He was simply there.

“Thank you.” Her voice was hoarse.

“Of course.” He inclined his head and dropped his hand, though it remained near enough for her to touch if she desired to. “I will eat more dog biscuits now.”

Amanda managed a watery laugh at that but stifled it when it felt like it might get away from her far too quickly. She ate more of the sprouted seeds and nibbled on the seaweed stuff until she was full.

Sarek ate a little more of what was left and then covered the dishes as if to preserve them. Neither of them had any idea when they would be given more food or if it would even happen at all.

Almost as soon as he had set the last dish cover down, the door unlocked.

Sarek lunged to his feet, Amanda a half beat behind him and she was bodily shielded by him once more.

The matriarch poked her blunt head through the door with a twist of her sinuous neck and her blue eyes lit upon them immediately. The rest of her snaked through the door and it closed with a quiet finality behind her.

“You are well fed?”

Amanda cocked her head when a modulation of her own voice mixed in with many others came back to her. They had been recorded. The translators working while she and Sarek conversed. She had suspected they might do the same and judging by the relative inanity of their conversation, Sarek must have known it too. She felt no surprise from him certainly.

“Loving the kibble.” Amanda offered in response.

Sarek still had himself planted between Amanda and the matriarch but, if their society really was matriarchal, the female was only really going to deal with Amanda.

Touching his hand with hers, brushing their knuckles as he had done for her, Amanda sidled around Sarek to stand beside him. If it was posturing the alien wanted, Amanda could do that. Sarek stiffened, all but bristling internally in protest, but he held himself in check and let her be.

“A trusted enemy is trusted.” The matriarch tilted her head, her permanent grin from her hooked mouth giving her features an unsettling cast.

Amanda did not watch the way the matriarch’s tail wound back and forth behind her but she was certainly aware of it. Something niggled at her about it but she didn’t have the attention to spare right now to puzzle it out.

“Alright, will you trust me with your name? I am Amanda. This is Sarek.” She might as well attempt introductions.

“Hiresh.” The matriarch tapped her chest as Amanda had done when she had introduced herself. “The others are…the Gorn.”

“The Gorn? That is your species?”

A slow nod and a deliberate blink was the only response Amanda got and she supposed she should take that to be an affirmative.

“Where are you taking us, Hiresh?”

“Back to the beginning.” Hiresh cocked her head, her tail slinking slowly back and forth in her wake as she prowled deeper into the room. She stopped by the game board. “You examined this.”

“We did. Looked to be the only thing that belonged to- -the Gorn.” Amanda circled with Hiresh, keeping the distance between them. “It is a game of strategy? The red against the blue and the gold…cause upset?”

“Yes. Yes.” Hiresh nodded her head eagerly. “You play?”

“I think we already are, Hiresh.”

Hiresh made an awful hissing sound. Amanda realised, only when her spine stopped attempting to crawl into her skull, was supposed to be laughter.

“Very true, Trusted Enemy Amanda.” Hiresh stooped and picked up one of the serpentine golden pieces from the board. The same one Sarek had handled.

“What does that mean? Trusted enemy?”

“It means…you can be trusted to be an enemy.” Hiresh cocked her head as if it were obvious and Amanda had to agree with the flash of frustration that flickered from Sarek through the bond.

That hadn’t really cleared anything up.

“Seems odd. To trust an enemy. Where we come from, you trust allies.”

“Allies…always want what allies want. Take and take and expect not to be killed.” Hiresh waved a gloved talon as if this were a vast annoyance to her personally. “Enemies can be trusted to work for themselves. Sometimes working for the same as Hiresh wants, sometimes other.”

“And they can be killed after, right?” Amanda heaved a sigh.

“You see.” Hiresh looked pleased.

“I do.” Amanda nodded slowly. “What is it you want?”

“I want what you have seen.”

“I won’t tell you. Your goons already tried to force it out of me and that didn’t work. I’ll die before I break.” Well, she could hope. The flash of annoyance she felt from Sarek was powerful and somehow directed. He had wanted her to feel it. She supposed she wasn’t sticking to the agreed script.

“Yes. Yes. We treated you as prey and this was incorrect.” Hiresh nodded. “Apologies for this.”

“Uhm…not even remotely accepted.” Amanda shook her head, entirely nonplussed.

“The Gorn are, hmm, simple? The way they growl and always want to protect. In their blood.” Hiresh waved negligently at Sarek as if he were exactly the same. “Not like us. Not queens. We are different. Our blood adapts. We _survive_.”

“Oh…kay?” Amanda felt like she had missed a step in the conversation somewhere. Something vital. It clicked. “The cold. I recovered from the cold.”

“Yes.” Hiresh kicked her chin up in a nod. “Gorn cannot.”

“But queens can?”

“Yes.” Hiresh seemed delighted. “A fellow queen, understands.”

“Do I?” Amanda felt she was letting the side down somewhat. She had no idea what the damn dinosaur was talking about.

“Queens are important and must be…preserved.” Hiresh searched for the best words. “Gorn, replaceable. You were correct to strike one of mine for his insolence.”

“Uh…huh.”

“Said yourself,” Hiresh looked down at the little figurine in her hand and then back at Amanda, “I’ll bite.”

Hiresh moved _shockingly_ fast then.

She lunged, her talon snapping out and hurling the golden figure at Sarek. He hissed out a breath in surprise, his hand snapping up to snatch it out of the air but that left him wide open to Hiresh’s actual assault.

The huge lizard twisted, her whole body coiling, and her tail lashed out.

It hit Amanda then. What had been different. What she had seen and not realised.

The ceramic blades on Hiresh’s tail. They were wet. Dripping.

Venomous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will these two ever catch a break?!
> 
> ...no. 
> 
> Not really.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More Space Orc Amanda!
> 
> More irrationally attached Sarek!
> 
> You know this is what y'all are here for.

**Chapter 8 – This Queen Bites and Then Some**

Sarek saw the attack coming too late to move out of the way.

He twisted violently. Hiresh’s tail swinging directly for his heart in a vicious arc that would no doubt pierce his torso with the polished ceramic blades adorning the tip. He had been distracted by thoughts of keeping Amanda from harm, catching the harmless figurine that Hiresh had thrown at him and now he was about to be impaled.

Not ideal.

Even _less_ ideal when Amanda appeared in the way.

It was difficult to tell who was more surprised when Amanda lunged and put her hand in the way of Hiresh’s strike. Sarek watched in horror as the sharpened blade on the end of Hiresh’s tail, pierced Amanda’s palm and burst out of the other side of her hand.

Amanda made a wordless sound of pain but her hand fisted around the tip of Hiresh’s tail. Her other hand manacled further along the length, gripping beyond the blades so that hand was not ruined as well. She braced her feet and with a yell of effort, hauled Hiresh off balance.

The huge reptile, with a much higher centre of gravity, already off balance by weaponising her own tail, was brought tumbling to the ground in a clatter of armour on armour. Amanda did not hesitate to strike down harshly with one heel as hard as she could onto the matriarch’s knee at _precisely_ the wrong angle.

Hiresh screeched in pain as her leg snapped at the joint and the door was flung open to her quarters.

Sarek turned to face the new threat and bodily put himself between Amanda and the charging males. They bellowed a charge and Sarek had little choice but to meet them head on. He made no such noise but the sound of bone meeting plate armour sounded tremendous within the confines of his own skull.

Sarek was hurled backwards by the reversed momentum of the impact and both he and the Gorn were momentarily stunned.

He recovered faster.

Sarek pounced with all the speed he could muster and closed his hands around the neck of the nearest Gorn. He attempted the render it immobile through a nerve pinch but its anatomy must certainly be too different for the move to work. Sarek shifted his grip, twisting into the Gorn with one hip and hurled the larger creature into its fellow. They staggered, attempting not to clatter to the floor and Sarek lunged forward to press his advantage.

“ _ENOUGH_!”

Sarek slithered to a halt at that reptilian scream. He twisted to see Amanda and Hiresh now several metres apart.

Amanda was bent at the waist, breathing hard. Her mouth was covered with blood and she spat more onto the floor as Sarek watched. She glared at Hiresh, seemingly unconcerned with the amount of her own blood that was pooling beneath her on the floor. A ragged claw mark adorned one shoulder that trickled blood but Sarek had to concur that Amanda might have a reason for her grim smile when his attention focused on Hiresh.

The Gorn Queen seemed to have come off worse in their altercation. She stood favouring her broken leg, two of her teeth were missing from her impressive array of fangs and her tail now had a distinct kink to it. Two of the blades snapped off of the tip.

“You have won his life, Enemy Queen.” Hiresh hissed even as her translator spoke calmly. “For now.”

“Try and take it again and I’ll make a hat out of your ribs.” Amanda all but snarled and the blood painting her face made for a fearsome statement indeed.

“Well fought.” Hiresh allowed even as one of the Gorn cautiously approached to support her.

“I’ve had better.” Amanda narrowed her eyes and Hiresh snarled at the insult.

“Treat your queen. You had best hope she is as strong as she thinks she is.” Hiresh spoke to Sarek as she leaned on her lieutenant and let him pull her from the room, stooped low to support her injury.

“Stronger.” Sarek watched her leave, remaining tense until the second male had followed the first and his queen out of the room.

The door closed and the lock bolted home.

Sarek whirled to see Amanda, crossing to her side in three long strides.

“Injuries.”

“Lots.” Amanda gasped, her legs buckling.

Sarek caught her, gripping her shoulders in one arm and looping her knees over his other. She hissed in pain when he lifted her but otherwise made no other sound of protest.

Sarek quickly carried her to what passed as a bed in Hiresh’s suite and lowered her onto the various skins and furs adorning it. He laid her out on the bed and started to triage.

The wound on her shoulder was ugly but relatively superficial. If he could bind it then the bloodflow would be staunched and it would hopefully clot quite quickly. The wound on –or rather _through_ \- her hand was of greater concern.

Sarek looked around the room for something that might pass for medical supplies. He tore open cabinets and drawers, littering the floor with useless trophies until he found a crystalline bottle with the pungent smell of ethanol emanating from the contents. Close enough. He tore a banner from the wall and set to ripping strips from it.

When he returned to Amanda, her breathing was choppy, her chest heaving with every breath. Her face flushed with fever. Her eyes were glassy and rolled in her head. She seemed incapable of focussing on him.

“Amanda? Amanda!” Sarek was heartened a little when she managed to snap her gaze to him for a moment, even if it slithered away again just as quickly. “Amanda, I must undress you. I need to tend your wounds.”

She moaned and Sarek took that to be consent.

What thoughts he could glean through the bond were jumbled and harried. She was not yet incoherent but she was trying to communicate with him.

Sarek jerked back in surprise when she reached suddenly for his face.

He stilled when she made a sound of frustration and attempted again to reach for him.

Of course, she could not speak physically, but through the bond she might be able to communicate what she needed to him.

Sarek gripped her hand in his, the bond flaring bright and wild between them. He brought her fingers to his face and placed hers carefully on the scorching skin of her cheek and jaw. The connection between them solidified and Amanda’s breathing eased a fraction. She blinked rapidly, attempting to control herself and focussed enough to project a single word to him.

 _Sorry_.

Sarek blinked. Of all the things he had expected, an apology had not been one of them. What had she to apologise for?

A jumbled sense of contrition was her response to that and it took Sarek a moment to translate.

“I will admit, I rather that you _not_ goad our captors at every opportunity.” Sarek’s hands moved quickly, searching her for wounds he had not noticed on the first sweep.

The punctured wound in her hand was slick underneath the lurid red of her blood. Something astringent in scent and likely not at all good for her. Venom or poison?

Sarek’s attention snapped back to Amanda when the haze in her mind grew more fevered. She was struggling to remain conscious. Sarek was aware that humans could process _many_ things that would flat out kill any other race, but he had no idea if the venom on Hiresh’s tail blades was one of those things. He would much rather she remained conscious a while longer yet.

“No.” Sarek’s other hand found her face and his mind poured into hers, reinforcing the connection even as she attempted to relinquish it on her end. “No. Fight. You must fight.”

 _Poison._ Her presence in his head was weak but she rallied herself enough to communicate as best she could.

“I know but it has not forced your blood to clot unusually. Nor has it thinned it. I believe your reaction is similar to that of an allergy. It will pass. I can help you until it passes.” Sarek spoke to her in a low tone, hoping she understood everything he told her. “I must staunch the blood flow and disinfect your wounds. I need both hands to do this. You must, Amanda, you _must_ hold on to me. Keep your hand here. My mind to your mind. My thoughts to your thoughts.”

Sarek reinforced his instructions through the bond as best he could. Her mind was scorched and chaotic in the wake of her fight with Hiresh. Adrenaline had poured through her system with a rush heady enough to make Sarek unsteady by proxy and now it was souring. Exhaustion setting in. He needed her to stay awake a while longer yet.

Still, he felt her rally. Her head lolled and her fingers flexed against his cheek and jaw. She swallowed hard, desperately thirsty but he could not get her water just yet.

Sarek moved as quickly as he was able, tearing the sleeve from her jumpsuit at the seam. He winced when he saw her pale skin marred by the vicious strike of Hiresh’s claws but the wound was already slowing in its seep of blood.

Sarek poured what might have been Romulan ale over the wound and did nothing to block the sting from her. She needed the burn to keep her conscious.

She projected her displeasure at such tactics into his head and he might have smiled at that had he been the type.

Satisfied with the wound on her shoulder for now, Sarek moved onto her hand and poured more ale over that wound. He felt a pang of empathy for her when the burn was fiercer by far and the ale pattered through her hand to drop onto his.

Amanda twisted in discomfort, her teeth stained pink with blood and bared in pain. She choked back sounds of agony and Sarek had no words of comfort to offer her. Even if he had known what to say, he hadn’t the attention spare to say them. He focussed instead on having quick hands and a strong mind.

He had no way to stitch her wound closed. The gaping wound showed several of the delicate bones within the centre of her hand. They appeared bruised and perhaps fractured but not outright broken. Incredibly lucky.

Sarek packed the wound as best he could and bound the padding in place with more strips of torn banner. He did not like to think of the hygiene of it all. He was unsure of the disinfectant properties of Romulan ale but it was all they had.

Her fever worsened as he worked and Sarek pushed down a flash of something very like fear that flickered through him. Perhaps it was the bond between them, but he powerfully did not wish her to die.

Amanda’s fingers slipped from his face, her arm going slack and he caught her hand before she could lose contact entirely.

“Stay with me.” Sarek reinforced the verbal command with a mental tug and she rallied once more.

He could feel that she was exhausted. Humans required much more sleep than Vulcans did and much of their healing processes occurred whilst in a deep state of unconsciousness. This had all been explained to him but the cultural attaché at the embassy as to why he shouldn’t schedule meetings at 0300 hours.

“You may sleep soon.” He promised her.

Amanda projected disbelief in his honesty and he could not fault her on that. Soon was a relative term after all.

“Hold on to me. I am going to lift you.”

She assented through the bond, unable to speak or even nod coherently at this point.

Sarek gathered her into his arms again and bodily lifted her, heading for the washroom once more. He carried her inside and set her down onto the tiled floor. It was cooler in here than the living quarters and Sarek worked quickly to lower her body temperature. He had no way of knowing for certain, but he felt that she was dangerously warm.

He activated the floor fountain and set it to the coldest temperature he thought safe for her. Gathering her closer into his arms again, Sarek pulled them both into the pooling water beneath the frothing fountain. He shielded her from the worst of the current with his own body and let the temperate water patter down onto her.

Sarek held her there, one hand cupping her face, the other holding her fingers to his skin. His mind felt to be more invested in hers than his own body but he had nothing else to use. He had done what he could for her wounds.

Now he could only wait.

**_Much, Much, Later…_ **

“We’ve stopped.”

Sarek’s eyes snapped open and he looked down at Amanda. She remained motionless, her torso draped over his legs and her head and neck cradled in the crook of his arm. He had been attempting to meditate or some semblance thereof. He thought for a moment that she had spoken through the bond but her mouth moved when she spoke again.

“Engines are different.” Her voice was so quiet, barely there, but she certainly spoke.

Sarek exhaled a beat longer than necessary, quelling the swell of emotion that her rise to consciousness brought with it.

“We dropped to impulse power, or what passes for it, several minutes ago. I believe we are now orbiting a planet. Most likely the one you have visited previously.”

“Goody.” Amanda’s eyes remained closed, she seemed to be attempting to conserve her strength. “I need to get upright. Hiresh will be here soon.”

“I believe opening your eyes should be your first step. You may –ah- work up to standing.”

“Good plan, Batman.” Amanda cautiously opened one eye and Sarek chose to lean closer and examine her bloodshot gaze rather than question who Batman was. Amanda noticed his intense regard. “I look that bad, huh?”

“You appear as a survivor would.”

Amanda considered that a moment, mentally shrugging if not physically.

“I’ll take that.” She cleared her throat and winced. Everything hurt but she supposed the upshot of that was that nothing in particular hurt terribly over the clamour of everything else in her body. “Help me sit.”

Sarek looked like he might protest but did as he was asked. His arm slid down over her back and supported her shoulders, lifting her whole torso.

Amanda breathed heavily at what the movement did to her wounds, her skin paling to an unhealthy grey colour for an alarming moment, but she kept her eyes closed until it had passed. She could do this. She opened her eyes once more and looked about herself.

“You know, one of these times, I’m going to want to be conscious for you undressing me.” Amanda plucked at the sheet he had wrapped around her and she _felt_ him flush all the way up from his toes. It brought a lopsided smile to her face. He was kind of adorable.

“It was necessary. Your clothing was wet.” He spoke stiffly and Amanda patted his arm that was still around her waist.

“I know. I was joking. Mostly. We can discuss it in greater detail if we live through this.” Amanda looked blearily at him, noting that he had removed his own clothing and had made some sort of wrap out of one of the wall hangings. “Very Buddhist.”

“The discussion?” Sarek seemed to be struggling to keep up. Either that or she wasn’t making sense at all.

“No, honey, you and I being naked together under better circumstances.” Amanda huffed out a slow breath as she examined her arm. He’d done a pretty good job considering he’d had next to nothing to use to patch her up.

Her arm was splinted and bandaged tightly. Her fingers bare at the tips so she could see that she was still getting circulation down there. The wound in her hand throbbed in time with the thud of her heart but it didn’t burn as it had. The same for her shoulder. He had wound strips of cloth around her shoulder and chest, a pressure bandage to force the cuts closed. She’d no doubt be scarred, but she’d live.

Better than the alternative.

“As you wish.” Sarek seemed baffled in his own expressionless way and Amanda smiled. It was too cute for words.

Either that or it was the blood loss talking. Could go either way.

“Okay, up. We’d better get dressed.”

“Probably best.” Sarek murmured, evidently believing it anything but.

Still, he shifted beneath her and helped her to stand. The room spun alarmingly for a moment but he held her gently and made sure she didn’t fall on her face. The epitome of the gentleman. He led her to a piece of furniture that hadn’t been toppled in his hasty search for whatever medical supplies he could find or make and helped her to sit.

“I will fetch your clothes.”

“Sarek?”

“Yes?”

“You’re going to have to help me dress. I can barely lift my arm.”

He was terribly still for a moment and nodded once, shortly. She bit back a smile at the discomfort coming from him in waves and tried to soothe him.

“You should get dressed first.”

“The disparity will not make you uncomfortable?”

“I’ll live.” Amanda’s tone was wry. “You, however, might combust if you don’t get to put some layers between us.”

Sarek opened his mouth to respond and then apparently thought better of it. He spun away and headed for the bathroom.

Amanda cast her gaze around the room whilst he was gone, aware of the sound of rustling clothes as he quickly dressed not far away. She had to admit, they had fairly comprehensively trashed their suite. If Hiresh hadn’t been pissed before, she certainly would be now.

The fight had left blood stains, both Amanda’s and Hiresh’s splattering the floor and walls in places. Wall hangings had been torn down, shredded and repurposed. Cabinets emptied, their contents strewn everywhere as Sarek had searched for something to use as disinfectant or anything else that might ease Amanda’s pain. Some of the furniture was splintered and shattered and Amanda realised he’d broken hardwood into kindling with his bare hands in order to make a splint for her hand.

The sweetie.

Sarek returned moments later. He was dressed in his tunic and trousers once more. It was ripped and stained but at least they fit him and he seemed more at peace than he had been before. He held a bundle of her neatly folded clothing in his hands and she thought it adorable that he had attempted to fold her underwear.

Amanda bit back a smile, correctly sensing he wouldn’t understand the reason behind it, and let him approach her. He hesitated just out of arm’s reach and she took pity on him.

“Do you want to close your eyes?”

Sarek shot her a look that she couldn’t read as he clammed up on his end of the bond but she could guess easily enough. Obviously embarrassment was illogical and he didn’t appreciate being called on it.

“Come here, then.” Amanda beckoned him forward and used a grip on his forearm to help her stand. She decided to just get it over with and shrugged with a wriggle on her good side.

Sarek looked abruptly up at the ceiling when the wrap he had painstakingly wound around her lost its grip over her good shoulder and dropped to the floor. Sarek made a sound deep in his throat, studying the light fitting still but seemed to be muscling himself around to the idea of them having to do this.

Once he could bring himself to look at her again, it was a matter of a few minutes and minimal awkwardness to get her dressed once more. Amanda was quite simply far too exhausted to care that a Vulcan Ambassador had seen her naked multiple times in the one day and was now dressing her like a child. It was almost funny how ridiculously non-sexual it was. He was chronically embarrassed that she had been forced into this situation and –if she was reading him right through their connection- very uncomfortable about her choices in the matter.

“It’s really fine, Sarek.” Amanda huffed out a breath as he finished buckling her belt and lowered her to sit on the ottoman again. “I know you would have done literally anything else if you could have.”

Sarek looked at her, moving to pick up her socks and pull them onto her feet rather than respond. He moved in such a way so as to not dislodge her hold on his shoulder that was mostly keeping her upright. He laced her into her boots next and she tried again when he refused to look at her.

“Even if I hadn’t understood it before, I can feel it from you now.” Amanda lifted a thumb to brush at the harsh line of his jaw and she measured the texture of a day’s growth of stubble there.

His eyes rose to meet hers and she stilled when he seemed to look far too deeply into her. The bond flared between them and she let him look. She kept her thoughts and emotions as open and honest as she could. She felt something relax in him when he read nothing but the truth from her. He really had been worried that she’d feared him taking advantage of her. The idea was as abhorrent to him as it would have been to her and Amanda was too tired to summon the words to explain. She let her fingers drift over his jaw again and he surprised her by tipping his chin into her palm for a moment.

Just a moment and it was more a surprise because he seemed to be taking to her hands being on him very well but…she was getting the sense that this part of him had not been used in a while. If he truly hadn’t had this connection with anyone since his wife then perhaps he had missed it.

Well, if he could offer her the comfort of letting her lay hands on him of occasion, she would let his mind brush against hers.

Seemed to do them both good, after all.

“I believe that I can fashion a sling for your arm.” Sarek didn’t lift his chin from her palm, letting her rub her thumb back and forth over the plane of his cheekbone.

“Sounds good. Thank you.”

“Of course.” Sarek reluctantly shifted away from her and went to work on her abandoned wall hanging dress.

He tore into it with a ferocity that she thought was barely restrained and she realised that this had been perhaps as taxing on him mentally as it had been on her physically. He had spent the whole time she had been tortured, recovering, attacked and then recovering again conscious. Well, aside from a brief bout of unconsciousness. Which Amanda could now attest did nothing to refresh and rejuvenate. He had been unable to meditate and had been as on edge as she had for their entire stay with the Gorn.

Even a practiced Vulcan like Sarek had to have limits and she wondered what might happen should he reach them.

She could imagine nothing good for any of them.

“I am in control.” Sarek spoke to her when he pushed up onto his knees again so he could wind his fashioned sling around her shoulder and arm.

“You’re tired, _kochanek_.” Amanda closed her eyes when the pain of her arm being moved washed over her. “We both are.”

“Kochanek?” Sarek glanced at her whilst he tested the fit and security of the sling he had made.

Amanda blinked, replaying what she had said and felt a flush crawl up her neck when she realised what she had said. She cleared her throat and knew there was little point in lying.

“It’s, ah, a term of endearment. In my native language.” Technically true.

“A term of endearment.” Sarek looked at her pointedly and Amanda made no move to expand on the matter. He turned his attention back to what he was doing until he was certain that she was secure. “Kochanek. I will remember when I am near to a Federation languages database once more.”

“I would be more than happy for that to occur.” Amanda summoned a smile from somewhere. “May I have some water?”

“Of course.” Sarek leaned over to the pitcher of water that he had brought closer at some point. Suspecting she would ask soon enough.

He helped her to drink and they both stilled when footsteps echoed in the corridor outside. The lock began to unspool behind the door and Sarek helped Amanda to her feet. She squeezed his arm before releasing him to stand on her own. She had to keep up this ridiculous posturing lest Hiresh decide she might just eat them both.

Sarek remained at her shoulder, his heat belting against her back and she was glad at his solid presence.

This whole bullshit scenario seemed a lot more bearable with him here.

She just hoped she didn’t get them both killed.

The door opened and a huge Gorn ducked down to look inside.

“To the shuttle.” It ordered. A modulation of Sarek’s voice coming from its helm.

Amanda felt Sarek’s fingers brush over the pulse on her wrist, a surge of simmering aggression turning over deep inside him like a waking tiger.

“Lead on.” Amanda curled her fingers back into Sarek’s palm and tried to communicate through the bond.

It happened easier this time. The lines between where her mind ended and his began were blurring and she’d be worried about that later.

 _Survive_. She reminded him.

 _You will_. He responded, following her towards the door when she moved.

Amanda felt a fear unlike any other spike in her at his sentiment. Her hand swung back, gripping his with a strength that surprised him. The connection flared bright between their minds.

 _Both of us_. She insisted. _Promise_.

Sarek hesitated a moment, helping her over the threshold of the door and into the stifling heat of the corridor beyond. Her grip on his hand remained desperately strong and he sent a soothe of feeling her way. She had to know that he had no way of promising that. He offered the next best thing instead.

 _Together_. He promised her. _Whatever happens._

Amanda’s grip relaxed a fraction on his hand, but her fingers remained twined amongst his. They headed down into the depths of the ship once more. Towards the shuttle presumably.

Sarek kept himself between her and their guard, fully prepared to employ violence to protect her if he must. He would be concerned about such a thought at a later date. Right now he had other priorities.

They had to survive.

Together.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finally get to the mysterious planet!
> 
> Sarek is a weencey bit irrational here but still in control. He's had a bit of a day though, so I think we should cut him some slack. 
> 
> Amanda IS hell on wheels after all.

**Chapter 9 – The Forbidden Planet**

Sarek was nudged towards the open doors of the shuttle and he rounded on the offending Gorn fast enough to make the huge reptile fall back a step.

Hiresh hissed something that might have been amusement and limped from the shuttle after them, following Amanda’s lead. He fell into step with her, keeping close in case she should stumble.

Sarek looked out across the landscape that greeted him and felt their chances of escape and survival on the rise a little.

They stood in a blasted clearing, evidence of weapons fire scorching the earth all around them. What had been a human settlement had been reduced to ruins on all sides. The land had been cleared of vegetation for several hundred yards beyond the ring of shelters that had been set up. Presumably for arable land that was even now being reclaimed by the jungle beyond.

The jungle was thick and fast and surrounded them on all sides. Night was falling on the planet, the sky painted deep indigo and purple of encroaching twilight. Animals called in the distance, evidently there was much life that called this planet home in the thick forest. It was warm, suiting to the reptilian Gorn more than either humanoid in their party. Humidity was thick enough to dampen clothes almost instantly and Sarek resigned himself and Amanda being wet for the foreseeable.

Still, once they were into the forest, visibility would narrow considerably. There would be ample opportunity to lose themselves amongst the trees.

And if the opportunity did not present itself, Sarek was certain that he could forge one where none existed.

“Remember where we parked.” Amanda turned to him with a drawl, her sentiment echoing his even as exhausted as she was.

He could sense that she doubted she could make a run for it even if she wanted to, but it wasn’t necessarily in her to give up on the chance just yet.

“This is the settlement that Amnesty Intergalactic came to the aid of?” Sarek examined the battered shelters all around them. He saw a child’s shoe, scorched and abandoned on the ground. He looked back to Amanda.

“Yeah. What’s left of it.” Amanda lifted her gaze from where he had been looking and offered him a smile. “The settlers are fine. They only attacked the peacekeepers.”

“We are not monsters.” Hiresh slunk between them, joining the conversation with her constructed voice. “There is no sport in killing civilians.”

“We’re going to have to disagree there, lizard queen. The marksman that managed to take out three of your warriors from a mile away was a _farmer_.” Amanda cheerfully informed Hiresh. “Your best warriors. Killed by a civilian.”

Hiresh hissed and Sarek had to wonder why Amanda enjoyed baiting her so.

“You trespassed.”

“You could have _asked us_ to leave!” Amanda snarled right back. “If we’d known this planet was claimed we never would have come here.”

“Your motives matter little.” Hiresh snapped with a clip of her teeth and Amanda smiled coldly.

“I hope there’s a hell for your hunters. You’ll be seeing it soon.”

Hiresh’s nostrils flared and her eyes flashed. Her tail swished back and forth as if she was considering using it again. Amanda narrowed her eyes, reminding the matriarch without words what had happened the last time she had done that.

“You will take us to what you saw.” Hiresh rumbled below her translator.

“I will not.”

Hiresh’s only response was to lift a small firearm and twist so she could level it at Sarek’s head.

Sarek had to admit that he was impressed with the control Amanda maintained over her facial features. She was horrified internally at the prospect of him being killed in front of her but her bland expression never once wavered.

“Tell me or I will remove his body from his head.”

“Do that and I’ll never say another word.” Amanda’s gaze was cold and Hiresh shrugged as if she had expected as much.

Sarek could hardly feign surprise at the notion of Amanda not being cooperative. He had reminded her several times that their survival depended on at least her appearance of cooperation but she had been goaded into denying the Gorn Queen her requests every time.

Sarek lunged when Hiresh reached for Amanda but he was bodily restrained by two larger male Gorn.

The sound Amanda made when Hiresh’s talon closed over her injured shoulder would haunt Sarek for weeks to come. Her legs crumpled and the matriarch followed her down to the ground, her tremendous strength compressing down on Amanda’s wound so fiercely that Sarek feared for the bones beneath the tears in her flesh.

“Tell me, male. Tell me where it is. That which she has seen. Tell me!”

Sarek strained against the Gorn holding him and his lips peeled back from his teeth in a response he had no desire to stifle. The bond screamed at him louder than Amanda could physically. He could feel the red throbbing edges of her agony clouding her world and it roused every protective instinct that his entire society said was long dead within their males.

Sarek opened his mouth to profess that he did not know. How could he know? This was the first time he had set foot on the planet. He had never seen it before never mind whatever it was that Amanda had stumbled on during her escape on her last visit.

Hiresh snatched an energy rod from one of her males and she jammed the crackling tip into Amanda’s wound.

Amanda _screamed_ , her head thrown back and energy arcing between her bared teeth. Her back arched, her limbs twisting in a rictus of agony and she thrashed backwards onto the ground.

“I will tell you!” Sarek lunged towards Amanda again, succeeding in dragging the two Gorn with him a step. His skin throbbed in time with the thundering of his heart and every muscle he had stood out in sharp relief. “I will. I will take you there.”

“Good.” Hiresh lifted the rod, whatever passed for a smile gracing her features.

“I will tell you _if_ you heal her wounds.” Sarek told the Gorn queen and was treated to a slit blue gaze in return. “I know you have the technology or you would not be walking right now. My queen saw to that.”

Hiresh cocked her head, her eyes slitted as she considered him and then she shrugged. She hissed something to one of the males and it nodded. Stepping towards Amanda.

A third Gorn had to help his compatriots when Sarek moved to attempt to stop him. The male cast a look at him from within its mirrored helm but feared its queen more than it did Sarek. It pulled a _huge_ syringe from beneath one of the plates of its armour and did not hesitate to plunge the needle into Amanda’s neck and depress the contents.

Amanda was entirely out cold and did not even flinch at the treatment. She lay on the ground, stained with the ash of the destroyed human settlement. Sarek would later admit that he thought terribly irrational thoughts about what might happen if the contents of that syringe did not benefit her.

Hiresh hissed to her males again and Sarek was released as quickly as he had been grabbed. He darted out of their reach and dropped to one knee at Amanda’s side.

She was unconscious but her breathing was deep and evening. The bandaging on her shoulder was smoking from where the energy rod had burned her. The scent of scorched flesh was powerful amongst the sizzling metallic tang of fresh blood.

Sarek shoved the emotions that threatened to roar free of him down and slipped his hand carefully beneath her neck, lifting her head under the pretence of checking for injuries. She had hit the ground quite hard. He pushed against her with his mind through the bond and was heartened when he could sense her mind in its dormant state.

“Come, loyal one. Carry your queen.” Hiresh let the energy rod she held crackle into his field of vision.

Sarek made a brief calculation as to how easily he might feed it to her. Something of that ilk must have shown in his gaze when he looked up at her because several rifles were primed and aimed at his head and chest.

“Carry her or we drag her through the muck.” Hiresh offered.

Sarek leaned down and lifted Amanda as gently as he was capable. He supported her shoulders in one arm and looped her knees over the other. He stood, watching her carefully for signs of discomfort but she remained unconscious.

“Lead the way.” Hiresh gave him a mocking bow, pointing the way with her energy rod and Sarek was glad of it.

Sarek shifted Amanda in his hold and started in the direction Hiresh had indicated. Across the fields, towards the jungle and the imposing spine of mountains beyond. He could only hope that Amanda woke soon. Not only so she might lead him at least in the correct general direction to convincingly fool their captors.

He had no idea where he was going after all.

**_Dawn…_ **

“Enough. We stop here.”

Sarek turned to look at the matriarch reptile and might have felt relief had he allowed himself to do so.

He glanced around the patch of terrain that she had chosen for a camp for them and admitted that he might have done the same. It was sheltered by the canopy of the trees high above them, the ground relatively flat rather than the punishing incline they had met almost as soon as they had reached the jungle.

The Gorn males moved quickly in order to set up the camp. They slung packs down from their broad backs and set to emptying the contents. They erected a quick but simple shelter for Hiresh and a smaller one on the opposite side of where two of the Gorn appeared to be struggling to start a fire in the damp. Sarek was herded towards the smaller shelter and inside, the material door left open so that they could see him still.

The males were to do without, apparently. The rain that had poured steadily through the night pattering onto the plates of their armour with an almost musical beat. Sarek was soaked to the skin as was Amanda, still unconscious –if moaning occasionally- in his arms. Hiresh remained the only Gorn to leave her head exposed to the elements but she still wore her dark armour.

Sarek supposed that it offered something of a controlled climate if they truly were cold blooded. If Gorn females could survive more temperature extremes than the males that was possibly why Hiresh left her head bare. Then again, considering she _only_ left her head bare, perhaps her survival of temperature extremes was relative.

He could think of no other reason for them to stop other than the advent of daylight clambering over the horizon to what he had mentally labelled as East. None of the Gorn appeared to be taxed by their journey or the rough terrain they had experienced thus far. They took turns in dropping to all fours, moving easily through the jungle with their bulk much lower to the ground. Only Hiresh and whichever guard maintained a rifle sight on Sarek’s skull remained bipedal along with their captives.

So perhaps there was a limit to the heat that the suits could combat. Perhaps the Gorn were stopping because they _had to_.

Sarek felt additional discomfort at the conjecture available to him. He was hypothesising with limited information. He simply did not know enough of the Gorn to make an educated guess on why they had stopped. Perhaps they simply wished to eat or strategize what to do with their captives whilst they went hunting.

“Rations. Water.” A Gorn appeared at the doorway, tossing a bag of what may have been more kibble at Sarek so that it spilled onto the floor and a canteen which sloshed with liquid too.

The Gorn retreated, slapping the material down over the doorway of what was essentially a tent and settled his bulk down just beyond it. Presumably taking first watch on the prisoners.

“I thought he’d never leave.”

Sarek’s head whipped around to look down at Amanda. She opened her eyes, bright and clear, blinking rapidly as if to clear them.

“Hi.” She smiled at him.

“Your status?” Sarek made to lower her to the floor but she swung her legs from his hold and stood under her own power with seeming ease.

“I feel…pretty damn good.” Amanda removed her injured arm from the sling with no sign of pain at all and turned her hand back and forth, examining the bandaging. She glanced at Sarek, her puzzlement evident, and set to removing the damp bandaging.

“You feel no pain?”

“It’s a little stiff but…feels like I just haven’t used it a while.” The splints clattered to the floor as Amanda peeled back the bandaging to reveal her hand beneath. She blinked, spreading her fingers wide and staring at the back of her hand. “Huh.”

“Remarkable.” Sarek moved closer, looking down at her hand which had healed at a prodigious rate.

The wound that had pierced her from the palm clean through to the other side of her hand was entirely sealed. No sign of infection and only a livid pink scar on either side to show for her injury and agony. Amanda flexed her fingers carefully and rotated her wrist exhibiting a whole range of motion. She made a fist and flexed her fingers wide and then set both hands to the bandaging on her upper arm, shoulder and chest.

Sarek moved to help her when she could not reach easily and they removed the bandaging to show the same repair to the damages there. The talon wounds had sealed themselves, their scarring silvery and faint. The burn was twin stars of an angrier pink but also sealed. The stench of cooked muscle fell away with the bandaging and Amanda’s fingers carefully traced over the healed skin as she considered this new development.

Her regard landed on him like a physical thing.

“What did you _do_?”

“I bargained for your treatment.” Sarek admitted easily. There was no reason for him to lie. If she was angered with him then she was alive and well enough to be so. It was a trade he would make a thousand times over.

Amanda seemed to sense that from him along the bond and her eyes narrowed, she let loose a slow breath from deep within her chest and her chin rose as she reined her temper in.

“What did you bargain with?”

“I will lead them to what you have seen and in return they treated you with…something I have never seen before. You were injected with a green liquid by one of the Gorn. It has apparently healed you better than it even did Hiresh.”

“You’ll lead them to- -?!” Amanda cut herself off when the bulk of their Gorn guard shifted outside and she thrust her hand out towards him.

Sarek looked down at the appendage for a moment and realised what she was about only when she huffed a sigh and reached around him to grasp his hand in her own. The connection flared _bright_ between them and Sarek inhaled sharply at the difference.

This was her at full strength. Healthy and whole and her mind untroubled by physical pains. Sarek blinked, quite unprepared for such a stark difference. He had not fully realised _how much_ pain she had been in before nor the toll her capture had taken on her. Her mind unhindered from such agonies was…quite beautiful.

_Flattery will get you nowhere. Neither should the Gorn be going anywhere. What precisely did you bargain with?_

Sarek suppressed a wince when her mind was blistering against his in her anger. He supposed that fair. She had desired one thing from him, that he not look where he was not welcome and he took her anger to be the assumption that he had gone back on his word.

 _I told them what they wanted to hear. We have been walking for the whole of the night and I have no more idea of our position than I did when we started_. Sarek attempted to soothe her, examining the differences in her mental scape. Her mind delved easily into his, brilliant and clear and vibrant. He had never felt anything like this.

 _Stop gawping at me. You mean you don’t know where you’re going?_ Amanda’s fingers flexed against his and Sarek let his thumb travel over the faint texture of the scar on her hand. The skin was sensitive there, he could feel the tremor of brand new tissues shivering through her nervous system.

 _Hiresh waved in this general direction with her energy weapon that she used to harm you_. Sarek shoved aside the swell of banked anger that threatened to break free with that and focussed on relaying necessary information instead. _I have been walking in a straight line._

 _Sarek…_ Amanda heaved a sigh and reached up to touch her other hand to his neck, measuring the throb of his pulse there and the roughness of his jaw. _You’re leading them in exactly the right direction. We must be nearly there. That’s probably why they chose to stop now. Rest up before going in to the Labyrinth._

 _My choices were limited_. He would not apologise. He did not regret his actions as they had saved her life and she was well again.

 _I know. Thank you, for having me healed. I do feel a lot better. This just…complicates things_. Amanda let her hand rest on his chest, the tips of her fingers resting in the hollow of his throat, the heat of her palm against his damp skin was scorching.

“You need to sleep, you’re exhausted.” Amanda dropped their private issue for now. “You need to get out of these wet clothes, eat and sleep.”

“Nudity again?” He arched a brow at her but did not release her hand.

She smiled broadly at his amusement.

“Every chance I get, _kochanek_.” She winked at him and Sarek was puzzled by the move. “Have you spent time on a jungle planet before?”

“No.” Sarek freely admitted that this was as far from his sphere of experience as was possible. The heat would have been bearable to him but the humidity was stifling. He felt like he was attempting to breathe more liquid than air at times.

The combination of heat, exertion, carrying Amanda for several kilometres even though her weight was negligible to his strength and the sapping humidity that seemed to lower the oxygen content of the air was…tiring. He had been through worse trials but he had started those trials in the pinnacle of his health and youth. He was by no means elderly for a Vulcan, but the stresses of being held captive, beaten and burned, as well as forging a new bond with Amanda and maintaining her health as best he could had left him fatigued.

“I know, it sucks. First rule is that you don’t want to grow moss. Ideally we’d have a wet set of clothes for outside and a dry set for inside but…it’s not like this is a Risan package deal.” Amanda lifted her previously injured shoulder in a casual shrug. “So get undressed.”

Sarek would have been embarrassed but he was, quite frankly, too tired. The relief of seeing Amanda whole and well, of feeling that through the bond, was dizzying. He nodded mutely and felt a small pang of loss when she took her hand from his so that he could remove his tunic.

Amanda turned away to investigate the rations that the Gorn had given them. The canister of water was huge. Easily four or five litres. A small portion for something the size of a Gorn but more than ample for two humanoids. The bag of kibble was similarly oversized. Further investigation revealed there to be some strips of jerkied…something. Amanda sniffed and nibbled off a piece chewing thoughtfully. It was herby and green, she took it to be some kind of plant pulp that had been dried out and salted but it seemed fairly inoffensive.

There were no blankets or sleeping facilities, only the bare canvas of the floor over the jungle undergrowth. The moss beneath them offered some comfort though Amanda doubted Sarek even needed to be horizontal to sleep right now. He was practically dead on his feet.

Thankfully not literally.

For once it seemed like she was doing better of the two of them. She was a little glad at that. She’d spent far too much of this entire escapade being knocked out or falling unconscious and would rather the trend didn’t continue. Given the option, she would much rather be useful.

Amanda toed off her boots and socks. She stripped out of the clothes down to her underwear and used the frame of their tent to hang them up to dry as best they could. The air was humid even inside the tent and she doubted she was going to enjoy putting them back on again, but it would give her skin the chance to dry off a little and breathe.

She turned back to find Sarek having done much the same. He lowered himself stiffly to the floor to sit cross legged and Amanda hauled their rations over to him.

“Eat and drink. Seems all edible.” Amanda settled the bag of food in front of him and glared at him until he forced himself to eat mechanically. She opened the canteen of water and sniffed at it. She could smell only the metal of the container and something faintly like bicarbonate. Sanitation tablets.

Hopefully.

She sipped experimentally and could taste nothing of the natural environment around them. The last thing they needed right now was dysentery. Amanda nodded, she was going to have to hope for the best, and passed the canteen to Sarek.

He gripped it in both hands and drank deeply of it. He seemed not to care about the stray droplets of water that trickled down from the canteen and dropped to his chest. He inhaled deeply when he had taken his fill and determinedly passed the bottle back to her. Amanda humoured him by drinking deeply though not as much as he had.

They were both aware they didn’t know if or when they would get more.

Amanda nibbled on her own bits of kibble and stilled a little when she noticed that Sarek was staring at her skin. Patently unlike him. She followed his gaze downward and hummed when she realised what he had seen.

“Huh. I was told that scar was permanent.” Amanda traced her fingers over the wound low on her abdomen near her hip that had pained her so. Her skin was unblemished and scar free. The skin smooth as if it had never happened. “What the hell did they give me?”

“Some sort of regenerative treatment. Seems to have meshed better with your physiology than that of the Gorn.” Sarek ate until he pushed the rations away from him, seemingly done for now. “Hiresh still limps, even twelve hours later.”

“Good.” Amanda felt absolutely no remorse for destroying the knee of their captor. 

“You must not allow yourself to be goaded into further violence. I have nothing left to bargain with to garner you medical treatment.” Sarek’s mind brushed against hers, trying to convince her to see things his way.

She jolted a little, they weren’t touching at all. He had said he could do that, that had been the point of bonding in the first place, so he could lend her mental fortitude when her brain was exhausted and her body done. It was…new, though.

“I know.” Amanda set aside their rations and looked about the barren tent.

The walls had paled out to a rose colour under one of the pink suns overhead. The tent was getting warmer as the suns rose. The sounds of the local wildlife calling to one another was growing louder. It would be difficult to sleep but somehow, she thought they were going to manage.

“Come here, lie down.” Amanda beckoned him closer and arched an eyebrow when he looked at her warily. “Your body temperature is going to drop when you sleep and you’re going to get cold, even in this heat. We’ll keep each other warm enough to get some rest.”

“One of us should keep watch.” Sarek protested but it was weaker than he would have preferred.

“For what? There’s nothing we can do just yet. Let’s both get some rest. We can talk more later.”

Sarek considered a moment more. Searching for an argument that did not involve illogical snuggling on his part.

Well, the snuggling was logical and he well knew it.

“Sarek, get over here, your queen commands it.”

She felt a flicker of amusement from him beneath the exhaustion and he rocked forward on his knees, crawling towards her and then stopping uncertainly. Amanda guided him down to the floor, cushioning his head on her folded arm. He stiffened, unaccustomed to this much skin on skin contact.

She wondered idly how he’d ever managed to father a son if he was this squeamish around women.

 _Not females in general. You in particular._ Sarek’s voice was quieter in her mind and she smiled. She supposed she was going to have to get used to him catching her thoughts by the tail.

 _I’m nothing so special_. Amanda mentally shrugged, resting a hand on his flank, over where his heart was, measuring the slowing beat of it as he forced himself down into sleep. An enviable skill.

 _You are unlike any other female I have been in close proximity to. The bond is…uncommon between us. You fit._ Sarek tipped a little closer to her, his forehead resting against her collarbone.

 _I fit_?

 _Yes. Bonds like this are rare. Natural and strong. I did not think it possible between a Vulcan and a human. Our…mental spaces do not overflow one another. Complimentary._ Sarek’s breathing slowed as he sank deeper and deeper towards a dark sleep.

 _Is this going to be a problem later?_ Amanda frowned a little, growing sleepy herself. His exhaustion seemed a little infectious. Either that or the warmth and peace that seemed to radiate from them now that they were practically wrapped in one another.

 _Depends_.

_On what?_

_On if you wish to leave me_.

Amanda blinked at that, her eyes fluttering open so that she could look at him.

He was asleep. Dead to the world.

Amanda shook her head minutely. She had bigger things to worry about than falling…into the man in her arms.

Though she would have to admit that the irony of her surviving the Gorn but not Sarek would be particularly brutal.

Still, survive today. She could deal with that later.

If she had to.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Amanda is in denial because it's a survival instinct at this point. 
> 
> We're gearing up for the exciting bit now guys!

**Chapter 10 – May the Odds Ever Be in Your Favour**

Sarek awoke to stifling, strength sapping heat and cloying humidity in his airways.

He shifted uncomfortably, trying to push those sensations down beneath his notice and stilled when his technique worked. Leaving a void for a whole new set of sensations to fill.

Amanda was on top of him.

Sarek’s eyes snapped open and he craned his neck to look at her. Her arm was still wrapped around his head, cushioning him from the spongy forest floor beneath the tent canvas but he must have shifted in the day whilst they’d slept. She was spread across his chest and body like a living blanket, her legs tangled amongst his. Heat came from her in waves and was probably what had woken him. Her head rested on his shoulder, her face buried in his neck so that he could feel the soft huff of her breath against his skin.

Sarek worked not to tense beneath her as he did not wish to wake her. She should take what rest she could. Still…this was an entirely new situation for him. Even in the depths of Pon Farr with his first mate he had not…

Sarek blinked up at the ceiling, mentally reviewing that last.

His first wife.

Sarek examined the way the pink light of the jungle planet refracted purple and rose hues amongst the inky tangle of Amanda’s hair.

He was not uncomfortable. Not in the slightest. She was very light, human density being much lesser than Vulcan but that was not all. Even now, in total relaxation, her mind was bonded with his. Their psyches tangled up as comfortably as their bodies were. It had not been like that with, T’Rea, his previous bondmate. He had not savoured the sensation of her skin against his as he did now with Amanda.

It had not been a bad match. They had suited one another in many ways, but it had been far from an affectionate relationship. It was different with Amanda. Different already after only a day and night in her company. Her mind complimented his in ways he had not anticipated.

The bond had been forged out of necessity. He had not expected her to take so easily to it. Nor he himself, for that matter, he had been out of practice, as the humans would say. Still, they were bonded now, unofficially or not, and it was growing with no effort on either of their parts. They could already communicate mind to mind with only casual contact and he could sense emotions and the texture of her thoughts even without her skin on his.

It was uncommon…though certainly not unpleasant. Quite the opposite in fact.

Sarek wondered if she might consider bonding with him beyond this experience. If they survived the Gorn, would she accept him socially?

“I really think the bigger question is what _your_ people are going to think of you bonded to a human.” Amanda murmured quietly and Sarek did tense a little then. He had been so absorbed in his thought processes that he had not noticed the waking of her mind and body.

“There are no laws to prevent it.” Sarek had been mentally reviewing such things for longer than he would like to admit.

“Vulcans are big on technicalities like that.” Amanda lifted her head, her eyes heavy with sleep but intent on him. She rested her chin on her hand on his chest. “I didn’t peg you for a romantic.”

“Compatibility is my motivator. Bonds like the one we share now are rare.”

“How rare?”

“Very.”

Amanda blinked slowly, letting that sink in. Vulcans were hardly prone to hyperbole after all. If he said it was rare then it must be. She heaved a sigh and considered a moment.

“This is a bigger conversation than we can have right now.”

“True. Are you amenable to such a conversation taking place at a later date?”

“Sure. We might well both change our minds when death isn’t imminent.”

“I shall not but your terms are acceptable.”

Amanda blinked at the certainty she could feel from him. He really was all in and he’d met her _yesterday_. True, a great many things had happened between then and now but she just hadn’t imagined that a Vulcan would ever…make such a hasty decision about such things.

“I will hold you to nothing you do not desire.” Sarek told her, his fingers all but itching to try and untangle the knots in her hair. It had certainly seen better days.

“Damn straight.” Amanda shifted and sat up, straddling his waist. A smile tugged at her mouth when his pupils dilated and she thought the compatibility he was motivated by wasn’t entirely mental. “We should eat.”

“I am not hungry.”

“I didn’t ask if you were.” Amanda reversed off him and reached over for their water and bag of food. There was still more than half of it left. “The heat and humidity on jungle planets saps your strength, dehydrates you and makes you too miserable to eat. You have to force yourself.” Amanda dug out a handful of kibble from the bag and then offered the bag to him.

Sarek eyed the pouch in her hands but could find no way to refuse her without it becoming illogical. She had more experience in more varied climates than he had. She was better travelled and had presumably done so without the comforts of a Vulcan Science Expeditionary Force or even the aides of an Ambassador. He would have to defer to her greater knowledge in this matter.

They ate in compatible silence, shared another third of the water between them and then Amanda decided she would see about ‘toilets’.

“Pardon?”

“Human women need to pee a lot, Sarek.” Amanda shrugged, flipping her tangled hair over her shoulder with a grumble at the mess of it. “That and I want to see how our hosts are doing.”

“You are not dressed.” Sarek murmured when she turned for the tent door.

“I know.” She glanced back at him, lifted the canvas and disappeared outside.

“Hey! Get up. I need to piss.”

Sarek blinked when he heard her address their guard and saw her silhouette quite deliberately kick the big Gorn in the side. It could not have been hard, her foot bare as it was, but the male still growled at her.

“Yeah, yeah, sure. Believe me, you’d rather I did this outside than in the pretty little tent. So lead on.”

The Gorn hissed at her and then turned to chuff a sound, presumably at its companion. It would not leave Sarek unguarded it seemed.

Sarek unfolded to his feet, unreasonably concerned when Amanda walked away with the second Gorn, asking about something called toilet paper. They seemed intent on keeping them alive, there was no reason for the male to harm her, particularly if she really was simply going to relieve herself.

Still, Sarek paced back and forth in the tent, waiting on her, like a caged Sehlat. He busied himself with tidying away their rations. Measuring the dampness in their clothes (difficult to tell if they were even marginally drier than they had been) and pondering on whether or not he should get dressed in them anyway.

He quashed a surge of relief when Amanda reappeared.

“Hi, honey, I’m home.” Amanda smiled broadly at him as she ducked back through the tent door. She quite deliberately let it swing back and slap the Gorn male in the mirrored helm as it ducked to see inside the tent and double check that Sarek was still there.

“We discussed you not goading them.” Sarek eyed her.

“Indeed we did, but it’s just so much fun.” Amanda held out her hand to him and he laced his fingers through hers, letting her pull him down to sit on the floor once more.

 _It’s hot as hell out there._ Amanda told him as if he could not see the pink flush on her cheeks and shoulders as well as feel the heat radiating from her from just a short trip outside. _They can barely move. I think those suits are environmental but not in the way I originally thought. I think the band of temperatures they can operate at is MUCH narrower than they want us to believe. Too much heat means they’ll become hyperthermic if they exert themselves._

Sarek considered that a moment. Mulling it over.

_You believe that they will not be able to follow us if we were to attempt escape in the heat of the day?_

_Good grief, no, I’m not suggesting that. The terrain is far too open here and they’ve still got those rifles. They’ll splatter one of us and eat the other one if we try that. No. I don’t think we should try to run yet._ Amanda shook her head and finally gave into the urge to fidget with her hair, it was going to be an imperfect job using only her fingers but she had the time.

With this whole escapade, like much of her life, it was often mind numbingly boring right up until the moment that it was wet-your-pants-terrifying. Judging by the Gorn in various attitudes of slumber she’d seen outside, they weren’t going anywhere until late afternoon at the earliest.

 _You have a time in mind?_ Sarek’s eyes followed her fingers into her hair and he couldn’t restrain the urge any longer. “Allow me to help you.”

“Sure, take that half.” Amanda flipped a swath of her hair at him and shifted so that she could lean one of her legs against his.

The easier connection sprang up between them once more and Amanda realised that they were touching now only for the convenience of it. They probably _could_ speak mind to mind without touching but she suspected the effort would be draining.

 _They cannot map the labyrinth. That’s why they need a guide._ Amanda waved at them both. _I think whatever is in the walls that make up that maze screws with their tech. It’s why they landed their shuttle kilometres away and walked here. If we’re_ very _lucky then it will screw with their suits and their rifles too. That and the labyrinth is…well, what it sounds like. There are caves, tunnels and twists galore. With their range weapons down and all of them reluctant to chase us, I think that would be our best chance._

Sarek considered her words for a moment, working on a particularly stubborn knot in her hair.

_Do you believe you can navigate this labyrinth with ease? You were passing through it, moving expediently in order to get to the other side. Do you remember the path you took?_

_I can’t forget it._ Amanda’s fingers stilled on her hair as the memories washed over her, seeming to push up from the depths of her mind.

Sarek retreated a little in the bond. She had asked him not to look and so he would not. Not even if it seemed like whatever knowledge was in her head wished to be shared.

Amanda winced, making a sound of annoyance or discomfort and shook her head sharply. She shoved the memories away. Deliberately needing something else to focus on. She turned her head to look at Sarek and mapped the breadth of his shoulders, the definition of his arms and abdominals. The green flush that dusted over his throat, high over the planes of his cheekbones and down over the breadth of his chest. His eyes met hers when her gaze finally climbed that high again and her lips quirked in a smirk when he arched an eyebrow at her.

“You’re the ideal distraction. Your muscle definition is…unexpected in a diplomat.” Amanda’s gaze raked him once more and then she turned back to fidgeting with her hair. Seemingly having repelled her forbidden knowledge from attempting to crawl along the bond to get to Sarek too.

“Is there a reason diplomats cannot take an interest in their physical wellbeing?” Sarek allowed himself to be diverted. They had discussed what they had to. They would not make a move until they reached the labyrinth, as Amanda had named it.

They would speak of other things until their captors decided to move them along.

“Not at all. It’s just that none of the other diplomats I’ve met have been quite so…pleasant to look at.”

“You are not aesthetically displeasing.”

“Damned with faint praise.” Amanda laughed and Sarek cocked his head, unaware of what had been the jest in his words.

“Does a war correspondent meet many diplomats?”

Amanda glanced at him with a tone of face that he could not read but she swept that away and answered him civilly enough.

“Well, we’re usually in the same business. So, I’ve met a few.” Amanda moved onto the next tangle. “Some of them better than others.”

“Do you have a favoured?”

“That would be unprofessional, Ambassador. A journalist must remain impartial.” Amanda grinned at him and he echoed the sentiment internally if not on his face.

“Are there ways that a journalist might be convinced to _become_ partial?”

Amanda watched him for a long moment, considering if she wanted to get into this right now.

Well, if not now then when? She may well die within the hour. Flirting with him hurt nothing.

“Cake.” She murmured.

“Cake?” Sarek’s face did that non-frown thing which meant he needed clarification.

“Ice cream cake. I can be bought. Copious amounts.” Amanda nodded with a smile. “Museums, I adore history. Coffee, the real kind, not replicated. Certain Ambassadors might also simply read to me. If their tenor were pleasing enough.”

“Truly?” Sarek very nearly smiled. He certainly did with his eyes. He gently laid another swath of tangle free over her shoulder with the rest he had loosened of knots.

“How might a journalist endear themselves to an Ambassador?” Amanda turned her head to look at him from under hooded lashes.

“Hmm.” The noise was partially theatrical on his part and partially due to his hesitance to push her for more than she wished to give. He measured the soft texture of her hair twined around his fingers and he gave a mental shrug. He would not know unless he asked.

“A journalist could be Amanda Grayson. That would exceed ‘endearing’ in every metric measurable.”

Amanda stilled at that and she twisted to look at him again, fingers slowing in their task of untangling her hair.

“This is probably the adrenaline or the near death experiences talking.” She murmured.

“Perhaps.”

She could feel that he was humouring her. He thought nothing of the kind. She narrowed her eyes a little at him.

“Happens to humans sometimes. Has happened to me. I’ve made some…questionable decisions when coming down off an adrenaline high. I’ve spent quite a while embedded with soldiers, in more ways than one. They are…transient in many aspects of their lives because they don’t know how long anything will last. How do you know I won’t do the same to you?”

Sarek tilted his head. It was a fair question. Their circumstances were extreme to say the least. They had been through much in a very short span of time. He could sense that it echoed something familiar in her. She had taken to the whole situation with a great degree of calm considering what had happened. She was focussed on the now because to think of later would be destabilising. It was a mindset that kept her from panic and worse.

“I am not a soldier.” Sarek finally said. “The impression you have left on me is far from transient. It was not my intention, but I now believe it to be all but indelible. I am not certain that your feelings for me are not a product of our circumstances but so few things are certainties. Though I believe the odds to be in our favour.” 

Amanda huffed something like a bitter laugh.

“In that if nothing else.” She licked her lips, considering a moment. “Vulcans do not like to be touched.”

“Exceptions can evidently be made.” Sarek murmured, his knuckles brushing against her shoulder as he worked on the last tangle in her hair.

Her breathing hitched a little but she forced herself to continue.

“Humans are the opposite. You know that. We’re _very_ tactile, for the most part. Particularly with those we have as…intimates.”

“Yes.”

“ _I_ like touch. A lot. To touch and be touched. I’m verbose, definitely, but I would expect skin privileges. I would need it with someone who wanted me to be exclusive with them. You _are_ talking about exclusivity, aren’t you?”

“You would be mine. Exclusively.” Sarek watched her from under hooded lashes. It did nothing to lessen the flare of possessiveness that streaked along the bond to curl hot and feral around her.

Amanda’s brows rose at that. She hadn’t expected that of him but it was almost reassuring to know that he was invested.

“As I would be yours.” He amended after a moment. His sense of equality demanded nothing less.

“So…I know you’ve fathered a son but was that done –hmm- personally? Or do Vulcans find reproduction to be an illogical business along with everything else fun?”

“A valid concern. I do not believe Vulcans to be as preoccupied as conjugation as humans though we certainly do practice it when appropriate.” Sarek tilted his head the other way, seeing no need to tell her of precisely how illogical Vulcan males could become about such things and about how it had led to the conception of Sybok and his marriage to T’Rea in the first place. “In truth, you might concern yourself more with the disparity in strength and density between us. I would, of course, endeavour to control myself but I have already witnessed your effect on my…composure.”

Amanda raised an eyebrow at him, her lips twitching as if she wished to smile but she cleared her throat and looked away rather than give into the temptation. She stilled when Sarek set to gathering her now tangle free hair in his hands but left him to it.

“There are many differences between us.”

“There are _numerous_ compatibilities.” Sarek countered.

“Yes, but the physicality one –for me- is a dealbreaker.” Amanda let her eyes slip closed as his fingers combed her hair together and she felt a smile pull at her lips as he started to braid it.

“I do not believe I will find issue with achieving your satisfaction.” Sarek began another braid, his fingers moving deftly through her hair.

“I’ve heard that before.” Amanda all but snorted in amusement.

“Vulcans do not lie.”

“Oh, human males believe themselves when they say it too.” Amanda lifted a shoulder in a shrug.

“I look forward to the opportunity to prove my veracity.” Sarek murmured, joining the braids together and piling them up upon her head. “Hold this here, please.”

Amanda lifted both arms and let him guide her hands into place. Holding her hair piled high on her head. She shivered a little when his fingers slid over hers, a frisson thrilling through the bond.

Sarek leaned around her, scooping up the sack that their rations were in. He considered a moment and then ripped a strip from the lip of the cloth bag. He measured it between his hands and then turned back to her, using his makeshift ribbon to secure her hair in place. His head tilted as she removed her hands and he admired his own work.

“You should not be tangled anymore.” He shifted his weight, resting casually on his heels, towering over her even as he knelt.

“Thank you.” Amanda stifled a sudden yawn and rubbed at her eyes. They had slept for most of the morning but it had certainly been a trying day preceding that.

“I do not know this expression.” Sarek nodded at her sleepy self and Amanda smirked.

“It’s called a yawn. Humans and other mammals of Earth origin do it for numerous reasons but mostly to signal to their social group that it’s time to sleep.” Amanda explained as best she could. “It’s not a conscious thing. Humans do it when they’re tired. Dogs do it to relieve tension that otherwise might rise to aggression.”

“Fascinating.” Sarek tilted his head, considering. “You wish to sleep once more?”

“Probably best to. We don’t know when we’ll get the chance again.” Amanda frowned as something occurred to her. “You don’t need as much sleep as I do. Do you want to try and meditate? I’ll try not to snore.”

“I do not believe you are in control of whether or not you snore.”

Amanda opened her mouth to tell him it was an expression and stalled when she caught the undercurrent of amusement from him. He was playing with her.

“You must need to meditate by now. You haven’t had the chance.”

“Concern for your wellbeing has prevented me attaining a deep state of meditation, true, though I believe I shall be able to now that you are not in immediate danger currently.” Sarek shifted to sit on the canvas floor of the tent. “I shall hold you so you may sleep now.”

Amanda raised an eyebrow and he sought to reassure her.

“I can meditate horizontally just as easily as I might vertically.”

“Sounds fair.” Amanda shifted towards him and settled herself at his side. She squeaked in surprise when he lifted her with one arm around her waist and settled her atop him. “You do remember that Vulcans are supposed to be intolerant of physical contact?”

“I have explained that circumstances can change such a stance.” Sarek lifted on arm to fold it behind his head to act as a cushion.

“Is kidnapping and mortal danger covered in the predetermined circumstances?” Amanda decided to just try and sleep no matter where he put her. She needed it and she had slept on rocks. He was distinctly more comfortable than a rock.

“Not necessarily.” Sarek spoke in a low voice, eyes already closed as he prepared to sink deep into a meditative state.

“What are such circumstances then?” Amanda yawned again and didn’t even try to stifle it. She cushioned her cheek against the solid muscle of his chest and shifted so that the hair on his chest didn’t tickle her nose.

“Bonding with one’s life mate.” Sarek hummed in a monotone and seemed unaware of the sweep of Amanda’s eyelashes against his chest as her eyes flashed open.

She opened her mouth, to pick a fight about that, they had agreed on nothing, but…but she was damn tired. Tired and willing to fight only so many battles at a time.

If being bonded to him offered him comfort then Amanda wasn’t going to wrench that from him. Especially considering it was her fault he was in this entire situation to begin with. Besides, they might not even be alive to be bonded to one another tomorrow or even an hour from now.

And if her mind relaxed into his, soothed by his meditation, allowing him to lull her into a deep and dreamless sleep, if she drew comfort from the bond too?

Well, she was no more in control of that than she was of snoring in her sleep.

**_The Labyrinth…_ **

Pushing out of the last of the undergrowth, Amanda slowed to a halt as the loamy earth turned to sharp shale beneath her feet. She slithered a moment, keeping her footing on the slick stone and glanced up at Sarek when he joined her a moment later.

He didn’t ask if this was it, if they had arrived at the labyrinth, of course they had. How many deadly mazes of razor sharp rock could there be on a jungle planet?

The Gorn melted out of the jungle, surrounding them still, and gazed over what they could see of the Labyrinth from their vantage point at the tree line. One of the males hissed at whatever they could see that the humanoids couldn’t. Hiresh chuffed at him, silencing him.

A creeping sensation spider legged up Amanda’s spine and she worked hard not to shudder in primal response. Her body remembered the labyrinth as well as her mind did. The sharp rocks that offered no comfort or shelter, the noxious gas vents that could induce pounding headaches from a single breath of their smoke, the glow the rock gave off in the night. Eerie like a blacklight and bright enough to chase away sleep no matter how exhausted she had become. Her circadian rhythm had been royally fucked in a matter of hours and that had been before she’d found out that the water was rancid and undrinkable even through the filter she’d had with her.

She’d crawled out of the other side of the maze, her mind split open, dehydrated, half dead and had been shot on her shambling way to the transport. She had no idea how she’d managed to get to the shuttle, but she had and she had survived and she had vowed to never come back here nor tell anyone what she had seen.

A journalist with a story that she wouldn’t tell.

No wonder her editor barely spoke to her these days.

“Enemy Queen, what should we expect?” Hiresh drew closer to Amanda but prudently stayed out of reach. She had underestimated Amanda once before and it had cost her the ability to walk unhindered by injury.

Amanda let loose a slow breath through her nose and a quelling glance from Sarek kept her from being baited into another altercation.

They communicated through the bond more easily now. Even without touch. It would seem that sleeping on top of one another really did help with that. She caught the brush of his soothing calm as he projected it at her and she turned to Hiresh.

“You’re not going to be able to sleep once you get in there. The rocks give off some kind of energy that excites the optic nerve. Nothing lives in there. Nothing. The ground is barren, the air is toxic above the gas vents and the water isn’t potable. You’ll only be able to drink what you can carry in.” Amanda sucked in a steadying breath and continued. “We won’t be able to stop or even sit down to rest. The rock is sharp, the edges honed enough to cut through perhaps even your armour. Certainly your skin.”

“How long will it take to reach the heart?”

“A day and night. I think.”

Hiresh hissed at her and Amanda opened her mouth, hissing right back from between bared teeth. Hiresh blinked, her head rocking back on her sinuous neck but she did not hiss again.

“I wasn’t precisely looking for the middle of this thing the last time I was here. It might take less time, it might take more. I don’t know.”

Hiresh’s tail slunk back and forth, obviously displeased by this development but she offered no further comment for now. She looked out over the walls of the maze that rose up before them.

Not natural. Far too intimidating and conveniently deadly to intruders to be natural. This was the domain of the gods and they risked all by trespassing. Hiresh tilted her head, debating the worth of the prize over the potential loss incurred in the attempt.

Hmm.

Worth it.

“Visibility is limited. The structure impedes our senses.” Hiresh murmured through her translator for the benefit of her captives. She cocked her head, her lurid blue gaze sliding to regard Amanda once more. “If I were you, I would try to run once inside.”

“That’s assuming a lot of things. Primarily that I am not a lot smarter than you are.” Amanda didn’t look away from the maze that seemed to yawn before them, preparing to swallow them whole.

Hiresh narrowed her eyes.

She knew the Enemy Queen held valuable information within that soft flat head of hers but that did not make her any less annoying. Hiresh would have been lying if she had said that she did not relish what she did next.

“I think I am smart enough to keep you from running. At least not together.”

Amanda turned to look at her, an affectation of boredom masking her features.

It fell away when Hiresh produced a gun from nowhere and shot Sarek.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH NOES!
> 
> Poor Sarek.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11 – The Game’s Afoot**

Being injured is never fun.

Bad enough to be hurt by a thuggish eight foot reptile armed with ceramics and a bad attitude but even worse to be wounded by a cold blooded killer that knows _precisely_ how to inflict pain without death. To strike where it hurts but where it is not mortal.

It was not a phaser that Hiresh shot Sarek with. It was a gun. An actual projectile weapon that both Earth and Vulcan had done away with centuries ago. Sarek didn’t even realise he’d been shot until he heard Amanda shout.

He had been looking at the maze, calculating their chances of escape. How easily they might slip from their captors. The tall walls and twisting corridors of sheer rock face, barely visible through a mist that seemed to cloy to the level of their shoulders should they be standing in it, Amanda and himself.

He had been wondering if simply ducking below the low cloud and running as fast as they could might save their lives when the metal bolt went clean through his foot.

Caught so by surprise by the shock of pain, Sarek reeled back from the injury before his conscious mind could supply a cause and explanation.

The bolt was longer than his hand and it pierced his foot through his boot messily considering the end of the bolt was blunt rather than sharpened. The bolt punched through his flesh, shattering bone on the way, and crunched into the ground he stood on.

Sarek coughed an animal sound of pain, reeling backwards and yanking his foot up instinctively before he could think to stoop himself. Only the flared end of the bolt prevented him from yanking his foot completely off it as he hurled himself away from the source of agony and Sarek thrashed, unbalanced, and crashed to the ground.

“Sarek!” Amanda was practically on top of him in an instant. “Don’t move.”

Sarek’s teeth bared in pain but he swallowed the snarl that had come with the order not to remove the source of his pain. He had already been reaching to pull the bolt from his foot but she was correct. His control reasserted itself and Sarek lowered his leg gingerly away from his hand, leaving the bolt where it was. He seethed out a slow breath, attempting to ignore the throbbing pain that rolled up his leg from his injury. Not easily done when a spear of metal is bisecting one of his favoured limbs.

“God fucking damn it!” Amanda swore, bent over his foot. She held him carefully by the lower leg to keep him from moving and examined what had been done to him.

Hiresh had shot him right through the middle of his foot. The flared tip of the bolt finned for aerodynamic purposes had stopped Sarek from yanking his foot clean off it. Which was fortunate because he might well have an artery nicked in there somewhere and the bolt was likely the only thing plugging the wound and preventing him from bleeding more freely. Amanda looked at the other side of the bolt, blunted and not barbed, there was nothing preventing her from pulling it out aside from aforementioned blood loss and the muck that now caked the blood stained bolt. If she yanked it back out the way it had come and she would drag all of those contaminants clean through his blood stream. Infection all but guaranteed.

“You’re going to be fine.” Amanda glanced up at Sarek and wondered how best to go about this.

She was more than competent at first aid. She had spent a great deal of time at the back of various soldier troops, hanging out with the medics. Her own bolt wound that she had earned the last time she had been on this planet had told her what to expect. This weapon, at least, was not poisoned. 

Still, she was fresh out of fully stocked med-kits and had to find a way to immobilise this as best she could.

“Pick him up, we need to move.” Hiresh told her, nudging at Amanda with the barrel of her freshly loaded bolt gun.

“Go fuck yourself, Hiresh.” Amanda ignored her captor. They weren’t going to kill her, not when she was this close to being useful.

Hiresh hissed at the insult that she obviously barely understood and looked like she was considering hitting Amanda with the bolt gun if not shooting her with it.

“My people pack bond. We don’t leave our injured behind. You know that. It’s how you killed so many of my people when we first came here.” Amanda needed something to bind the wound with.

“Use. This.” Sarek spoke with deliberately measured breaths. He was doing very well not just screaming and writhing with pain, Amanda thought.

She helped him remove his tunic when he tugged at the neckline of it, pulling it up and over his head to get it off. Amanda ripped into it, shredding the thick fabric. It meant that Sarek would be in a sleeveless shirt that clung wetly to him in the damp, he might be cold in the night but his foot could at least be bound.

“Your sentimentality is your greatest weakness.” Hiresh huffed, seemingly impatient.

“Our sentimentality is the only thing that saved you from being obliterated from orbit.” Amanda snapped. “Primitive snakes that have learned to walk. Slithering about the galaxy in a bucket barely capable of warp. You even carry _guns_ , you cowards.”

Amanda savaged Sarek’s shirt as she spoke. Anger boiled up in her, spilling out from behind bared teeth on a low hiss of revulsion. She’d just about had it with these goddamn space dinosaurs telling her she was weak.

“Perhaps I should just kill him.”

Amanda’s hands went still on the tunic she was shredding and something terrible and cold bloomed in her head. Something not at all enlightened or Federation Standard. Something that seemed to claw its way out from the very depths of her hindbrain.

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Amanda’s voice was deceptively calm. “Didn’t you ever wonder how my species became the dominant life form on our planet? Small, soft skinned, no claws or teeth to speak of really. We’re not the strongest nor the fastest. We’re just…little bipeds with big brains.”

“Yours is a weak tiny world on the edge of relevancy.”

Amanda _smiled_. Showing all of her teeth. Her blunt human teeth that wouldn’t be likely to do Hiresh any damage at all but…she had thought that about the humans hands that were devoid of claws. Her small feet that had to be encased in coverings to protect them from floors. Thinking like that had earned Hiresh a shattered knee and a permanent kink in her tail.

“We’re the horizon, Hiresh. My people line the horizon. You wrong us and we come for you. Not quickly, not viciously, but _terribly_. You’ll run and run and we’ll always be there. On the horizon. Stop for sleep and we’ll reach your own shadow before you wake. Hide and we’ll follow your footprints to the ends of the galaxy and back. Climb, heh, we’re descended from an arboreal species. Escape to the dessert and we might burn but we’ll never cook. To the tundra, we’ll wear the skins of your family to keep us warm at night. There’s nowhere you could run or hide that we would not follow. Remember that the next time you think to threaten one of mine.” Amanda glared at Hiresh for a moment and then turned her attention back to the more important matter of Sarek.

Hiresh did not outwardly react to the diatribe that Amanda had levelled at her but the males did. They shifted uncomfortably. Particularly at the mention of the humans wearing their skins. It was not the purview of males to involve themselves in the disagreements between Queens but Hiresh had struck Amanda’s male. Wounded him grievously judging by the way the smaller male had collapsed.

The Gorn were not unfamiliar with the concept of becoming collateral in disputes between warring queens but those queens had always been fellow Gorn. They had always fought between themselves and any injury to the warrior caste had been without intent or malice, accidental.

The Queen Amanda did not appear to know this or perhaps she simply did not care. Perhaps her people would view the warrior caste and the queen that controlled them as the same thing.

It was an uncomfortable realisation for many of the reptilian males.

“This is going to hurt.” Amanda told Sarek, reaching for his foot.

“It has been so pleasant up until now.” Sarek rested his head back against the shale beneath him and clenched his jaw against the pain when she lifted his foot.

“Bitch, bitch, bitch…” Amanda spoke lightly but peeled back the leg of his trousers so that her skin could rest against his.

Sarek blinked, suddenly light headed when Amanda cemented the bond between them with physical contact and put her mind between him and his pain. Sarek’s chest heaved with the sudden relief as she shouldered a disparate share of his burden.

Amanda’s only reaction was to let loose a slow breath, steady the shaking in her hands and return to tending his wound. She bound the bolt with the strips of cloth in her hand, padding the dirty end that protruded from the bottom of Sarek’s boot. She knotted the cloth around it as best she could and set to wrapping the rest around his foot to hopefully immobilise the bolt. Keeping the bolt where it was meant that he would be unable to put any weight on that leg at all, she would have to support him, but leaving it in was better than the alternative at this juncture.

Amanda looked up at Sarek along the length of his body, finally satisfied that the bolt wasn’t going anywhere unless someone interfered with it.

“Better?”

“Comparatively.” Sarek allowed. He nudged at her mentally, urging her to remove herself from taking the brunt of his pain. He was prepared now, mental fortifications in place, he could carry the load.

Amanda rolled her head on her neck as if wishing to work a kink in the muscle there free and retreated a little from him. Not entirely, she still used her foothold in his mind to divert some of the pain, but left the majority of it to him.

“Will you carry your precious thing now?” Hiresh asked archly.

“Sure.” Amanda glared up at the reptile. “Why not?”

Amanda shoved to her feet, a little unsteady from taking on some of Sarek’s pain but she levelled herself and reached down to help him up. Drawing his arm over her shoulders, she acted as a living crutch for him. The disparity in their height meant she didn’t have to stoop but he was still damned heavy.

It was going to be a long hike.

“So willing. Suddenly.” Hiresh waved them forward, indicating they should lead ahead.

“You mock compassion, Hiresh, but you forget that I’ve seen what lives in there. I’ve felt it, tasted it on the air, I know it.” Amanda picked her way carefully down the slope towards the maze, the nearest entrance that would take them into the labyrinth.

“You admit it, finally.” Hiresh trailed behind them, seemingly not noticing the way her hunting party hesitated a fraction of a moment before following her.

“I never denied it but you never thought to ask why. Why would I refuse to tell you what I had seen and where.”

“Why then?”

“Because, despite all your monstrous behaviour to us, I never wanted you dead. Not you and not your Gorn. I was happy to simply escape you and forget this ever happened.”

“Feeling hurt, little queen?” Hiresh mocked.

“Pissed, Hiresh. I’m really pissed off.” Amanda turned on the edge of the labyrinth, the noxious smoky mist coiling around hers and Sarek’s legs. She grinned again at the reptiles in her wake.

“I’m going to _enjoy_ watching you die.”

Amanda turned away, not interested in the expression that remark left on Hiresh’s face. She hoisted Sarek higher over her shoulder and –together- they stepped into the labyrinth.

 _I hope that you have a better plan than the one currently at the fore of your thoughts_. Sarek projected to her through their bond.

 _I thought that you would be grateful. This plan doesn’t involve running_. Amanda shot back at him, avoiding the sharp edge of one of the walls threatening to cut her arm off at the elbow.

Sarek did not sigh in annoyance, that would be a human gesture, but he plucked the image from his memory and paraded it across her thoughts, his displeasure plain.

Amanda, despite herself, smiled. Though the expression was strained.

They were in more danger now, than they had ever been.

**_Noon…_ **

“We must stop.”

“Can’t.” Amanda panted, breathing hard.

They had been walking all night and most of the morning. They had stopped only briefly to eat and drink. Though none of them had much in the way of an appetite.

The smoke that belched up from the vents in the labyrinth corridor floors was sickening. It caused nausea and headaches in humanoids and Gorn alike it would seem. They had all lost their appetites and Amanda had to force herself and Sarek to stay hydrated. They’d be relatively fine on limited food rations for now but Amanda still tried to get them both to eat as much as they could between bouts of vomiting.

The Gorn had not fared any better than their captives.

It had taken only an hour before the Gorn realised that their EV suits didn’t filter out all the toxins in the air and the effect would reach them even inside their helms. They had given up trying to clean out the helms after vomiting in them and had ditched the headpieces entirely. It left their reptilian heads bare to the elements and vulnerable to the environment. They seemed disorientated and ill at ease. They flinched at nothing, wobbled precariously when bipedal and meandered drunkenly on all fours. They bumped into the sharp walls rising all around them and their ceramic polymer armour proved useless against the black obsidian like rock. It sheared off slivers and chunks of the armour as easily as a knife through ripe fruit. More than one Gorn had lost integral pieces of their shoulder or back plating. It had sliced away down to the dark undersuits beneath and revealed scaled skin and even nicked broad wounds in places.

Every one of the Gorn were now sick, dehydrated, disorientated and bleeding. That had been even before the suns had set.

With the sinking of the pink hued stars below the horizon the night before, the glow from the rock walls of the maze had intensified until it was visible on even the humanoid visible spectrum. It was a guiding light for Sarek and Amanda with their limited night vision, meaning they avoided contact with the dangerous crystalline spears that jutted from every wall. It gave them eye strain from squinting against the brightness but the discomfort was minimal and mostly brought on from being overtired.

The Gorn fared much worse. Whatever the light did to their eyesight obviously caused them discomfort without the filtering faceplates of their helms. The possibly hallucinogenic effect on the Gorn made them jump at nothing, see shapes in the toxic smoke. Amanda had even felt a stab of sympathy when whatever one of the smaller males had seen reduced him to silent, terrorised, tears.

When the suns had risen again, their relief from the haunting apparitions had been short lived. They had switched one torment for another as the reflective surfaces of the slick walls meant there was no shade to be had, even deep within the warren of passageways. The Gorn were left without their helms, their suits no longer shielding them at all from the rising heat haze of the day lit by twin stars and sorely wishing that they had the ability to sweat like Amanda did.

Sarek didn’t sweat, a holdover from evolving in a harsher climate than humans had and the eugenics movement after the scorching of their home planet. A nictating third eyelid had spread over Sarek’s eyes and seemed to minimise the glare from the suns or the glow of the rocks at night.

Despite having his foot newly ventilated, Sarek might be doing the best out of all of them.

“We must stop to rest.” Hiresh rasped again.

“Well, you’re welcome to, your majesty. Though when the floor slices your ass off, don’t come crying to me.” Amanda turned awkwardly with Sarek leaning over her shoulders.

They had all learned the hard way that the labyrinth wouldn’t let them rest. It was obvious that this place was designed rather than naturally occurring, despite the eroded quality of the landscape around them.

Natural shale didn’t shift like iron under a magnet when you sat down. It didn’t level the sharpest edge at the ass of the unwary when they wanted to cool their heels for just a moment. It was fine for walking on, with boots, but try to sit or lie down and the offending party soon found themselves plucking magnetic shrapnel out of the sensitive segments of their anatomy.

“You must have found a way to rest here. You could not have stayed conscious and moving the whole time you traversed the maze.” Hiresh hissed. She might well have spat but she hadn’t the saliva to spare.

“Why?” Amanda lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. Difficult to do when wearing a Vulcan as a stole but whatever.

“Clarify.”

“Why must I have stopped?” Amanda cocked her head. “I was running for my life and was _highly_ motivated to keep going. The remains of your first hunting party that we came across earlier shows well enough that I wasn’t alone.”

Amanda remembered well the first Gorn that had followed her into the maze. They had died…well, they hadn’t had the tools in order to survive the way she had. If the dehydration hadn’t gotten them then the hallucinations and sickness had. She had heard them wailing in the night as she had scrambled through the twists and turns searching for a way out. They had been afraid before they had finally expired.

At least one of the bodies they had come across had shown clear evidence of ripping his own throat out. What had remained of his claws had been soaked in his own blood, a gaping torn hole where his neck should have been and his eyes huge with fear.

The other bodies had been less…intact. They had lain down to rest and had been cut too deeply by the sharp floor of the maze. They had nicked an artery and bled out or perhaps they had simply been too exhausted to keep moving and had exsanguinated more slowly. A death of a thousand cuts.

“No one could travel for days on end. Not in this.” Hiresh reached out to steady herself against one of the walls and snatched her talon away when a glass like shard of rock sprouted and stabbed her in the palm as soon as her hand came to rest on the surface. She hissed in discomfort.

“Humans can.” Amanda smirked. “Even whilst carrying their wounded. I’m not enjoying this by any stretch, but it won’t kill me. We can’t stop to rest. I told you that.”

“My males overheat. There must be shelter.” Hiresh hissed.

“Hate to break it to you, but no.” Amanda glanced over at the males and hardened herself against their plain suffering.

They were obviously having it the worst of any of them but none of them had made any complaint. They were still intent on following wherever Hiresh led and so long as that happened, Amanda would not let them rest. It was repellent but she needed them even more broken than this.

“They cannot take this indefinitely.” Hiresh growled at Amanda. Seeing the males in her care abused so obviously made her uncomfortable.

Amanda ignored that too.

“I can lead them back or you forward. I can’t do both. You shooting Sarek meant that you only have one guide.” Amanda remained calm in the face of Hiresh’s bared teeth.

“Liar!”

“I warned you. I told you before we came here! You demanded this of them. YOU are killing them!” Amanda snarled right back and was gratified when the males glanced at Hiresh’s back. They seemed to be coming to the same conclusion she was leading them to but none of them had yet voiced dissent.

Hiresh dissolved into a low rumbling growl deep within her vast chest. Her tail lashed back and forth and her eyes narrowed.

“How far to the heart?” Hiresh clipped eventually from behind her fangs.

“The rest of the day. At least. Slower if your males cannot keep up.”

Hiresh snarled, more to herself than anyone else and turned to look back at her males. They regarded her in return. Their scales a sickly grey beneath their usually deep green colour. Their eyes bloodshot and their spines stooped under fatigue and strain. They attempted to straighten for her, loyalty ensuring that they would follow her but she had to know that she was leading them to their death. She might last the distance, keep pace with the mammals, but her males were not as sturdy as she. Particularly without their suits.

“We stop for food and water.” Hiresh spoke to Amanda and Sarek and turned to hiss in her own language to her males.

They glanced amongst one another at whatever she said but a low hiss from her spurred them into following orders.

Amanda worked hard not to let her relief show when they _finally_ started peeling off their armour. The males helped one another remove the heavy ceramic plating that did little more than weigh them down now that there was no climate control to be had from the helmet sealing the suits. The Gorn worked to pile the armour together into a makeshift raft and the smallest stepped onto it as nimbly as he was able and crouched low with the utmost care.

The shale beneath him shivered, reacting as if the male had sat but then settled into its dormant state.

Very clever. They would sacrifice their armour but it would allow them to rest. There was still no shade and neither Sarek nor Amanda were offered something to crouch upon but they hadn’t expected that.

Hiresh stripped her own armour away and Amanda blinked when she saw the female wore very little else beneath it.

Paint or tattoos rippled over her dark scales. A deep forest green over her dorsal side and a lighter yellowish tone ventrally. Her tail slunk back and forth and she curled it around to fix the ceramic blades to it once more without the trappings of her armour. Fine gold metal was inscribed into the broad flat scales that fanned across her chest and broadened her shoulders. Silver claw sheathes adorned her talons beneath her armour and a few of the spines that ran the length of her vertebrae were decorated with coloured beads.

Other than that, the reptile remained nude.

She hissed something at the males and then started past them, going back the way they had come. She disappeared into the smoke, wrinkling her long muzzle at the stench and rounded the bend into the noxious mists, disappearing from sight.

The Gorn males didn’t appear to think there was anything amiss with this even if they did all wear form fitting body suits beneath their armour. Some of them suffering cuts and tears from the vicious walls of the labyrinth.

Amanda didn’t know if the body suits were due to modesty on the males’ part or it was a further layer of thermal protection to help them regulate their body temperatures. Either way, it seemed to be made of little more than cloth and they no longer had ceramic plating all over their big bodies.

They still outweighed Amanda and Sarek both by a factor. Hiresh was nearly four metres long from snout to tail tip and the males were only slightly less than that even without tails. They also had more densely packed muscle covering their slinking frames.

“Can you balance?” Amanda looked up at Sarek and he cautiously shifted on his one good foot.

Amanda eased away and, once she was satisfied that he wasn’t going to topple, she started across the distance between herself and the Gorn balanced on the carcasses of their armour.

“Water.” Amanda demanded. “For my male.”

The Gorn glanced at one another. Without their helms they were unable to mimic Standard, but they all still wore the implants that were embedded in the sides of their heads where their ears might be. They obviously understood her.

“You would deny me?” Amanda pressed, she needed to know how far their cultural conditioning would take them. They were a matriarchal society and she was female.

One of the males reached down at his side and lifted the oversize canteen. He cautiously held it out to her and she dipped her chin in a nod as she took it from him.

“Thank you.” Amanda turned away and headed back to Sarek, unscrewing the lid of the canteen and holding it up for him even as she stepped under his shoulder to help him balance.

 _Interesting._ His mind spoke to hers as he drank.

 _A word for it._ Amanda agreed and sipped from the water when he had drunk deeply of the container. She passed it back to him. _You need to drink more. You’re still bleeding._

_I have slowed it as much as I am able and your need for liquids is greater than mine._

Amanda snorted and shoved the bottle more firmly at him.

_We both know this is going to end, one way or another, before I have the chance to die of dehydration. This place has weakened them more than I thought possible. It must have been designed with them in mind._

Sarek sipped a little more and then pushed the bottle towards her mouth with a mulish set to his stance. He was obviously not going to drink anymore and would leave the rest for her. Amanda resisted the urge to shrug. He’d had more than half which had been more than she had expected. She finished the rest of the water.

_I find little to dispute your hypothesis. Are you still intent on your original plan?_

_I think it’s the one that ends with the least bloodshed._ Amanda let loose a slow breath. _Hiresh won’t give up. She’s determined to see what’s at the centre of this place and they’ll follow her as long as she still seems worth following._

_You have no guarantee that incapacitating her will not incite the males to avenge her._

_They’re tired and they want to go home. None of them are fanatics, they’re following orders. Take away their commander and I think they’ll follow the next female that tells them what to do._

_You hope._

_I’ve lived on less_. Amanda reminded him archly. She spoke aloud rather than let him try to continue to dissuade her. She was well aware that her plan was bonkers but her entire week had been batshit thus far and she hadn’t thought of anything better.

“How’s your foot?”

Sarek shot her a look, knowing he was being distracted. He looked away rather than argue.

“Perforated.”

“Does it feel hot? Are you feverish?”

“I can discern no sign of infection. I am warm but I believe that to be the planet’s atmosphere.” Sarek shifted, attempting to rest his toes on the ground. He bared his teeth at the pain and lifted his foot once more. “The techniques I usually employ to manage physical stimuli do not appear to be as effective as they could be.”

“Probably because your meditation hasn’t exactly been restful recently.” Amanda shifted beneath him, letting his arm rest fully over her shoulders, attempting to keep him upright with as little effort on both their parts as possible. “Anything I can do?”

“Do not die.” Sarek looked down at her, meeting her gaze with his usual implacable calm. The last he said just for her. _The destruction of the bond should you be torn from my mind could well kill me_.

“No pressure.” Amanda spoke lightly but her hand pressed to his flank, over where his heart was. She could feel the solid throb of it beneath her palm. “I’ve no intention of expiring in the near future.”

“How many sentient beings plan such an event?”

“Well, the Klingons are usually willing to pencil it in at the drop of a hat.” Amanda murmured, trying to keep her tone light.

“You will have to tell me how you survived an encounter with the Klingons. It makes you somewhat singular amongst citizens of the Federation.” Sarek rocked to take more weight on his good leg. He was wary of overtiring her. She was much smaller than her and her density less by a factor.

“Never underestimate the diplomatic prowess of a bottle of tequila and a willingness to eat foods that are still wriggling.” Amanda shot a sly smirk his way and Sarek was left to wonder if she was telling the truth or if it was her brand of humour that she employed to distract herself from life threatening situations. She sobered after a moment. Her voice quieter when she spoke again.

“In all honesty, it involved employing a level of brutality that I…had not wanted myself to be capable of.” Amanda’s jaw clenched. She smiled ruefully. “Though I understand that House no longer allows the piercing of brow ridges. They do not wish to be cut the same way twice.”

“You did what you did in the name of survival.”

“I did what I did because I wanted a story to tell.” Amanda snapped. “Don’t be so quick to look at me so kindly. I wasn’t always as I am now and a lot of those lessons were paid for in blood. You don’t get sent out on the war circuit because you play well with others.”

Sarek watched her for a long moment. Closer to this woman than he had ever been to another in his long life. Even his wife had never held him as Amanda did. She had not welcomed him into her mind to the same level as Amanda had. She had not taken pain for him through the link of their bond, indeed, it likely never would have occurred to her to do so.

Amanda had. Without hesitation or even instruction, she had taken pain from him because it was in her power to do so.

“You are not a monster.” Sarek tilted his chin so that she had to look at him.

“And how would you know?”

“Because monsters never believe that is what they are.”

Amanda let loose a hissing breath and straightened a little when a murmur went through the resting group of males.

“Speak of the devil.” Amanda muttered as Hiresh joined the group again.

The reptile queen looked even less pleased than she had when she had left. She was still adorned only in her jewellery and metallic tattoos but the environment didn’t seem to bother her the way it did her male counterparts. She approached Sarek and Amanda with her head held high, towering over both humanoids.

 _Now_. Amanda demanded of him as soon as Hiresh was close enough.

Sarek lunged, shifting his hold with his arm across her shoulders, spinning on his one good foot, scooping Amanda up off the ground and swinging her. Hard.

Right into Hiresh’s face.

The reptile squalled in surprise when both of Amanda’s booted feet connected squarely with her jaw hard enough to rattle it on its hinge and loosen some teeth.

Hiresh staggered badly, crashing into a wall that did not hesitate to lance her in no less than three places with hastily grown crystal shards.

Hiresh screeched in pain, one forelimb, her lower jaw and the base of her tail pierced clean through by the labyrinth’s defences. She scrambled madly, wrenching herself away from the wall as quickly as she was able. Red black blood already pouring from the wounds.

Sarek twisted badly, his ankle cranking beneath him on the unstable footing. He lowered Amanda as carefully as he dared, refusing to let her crash into a wall and suffer the same fate as Hiresh. Amanda too wasted precious seconds, steadying Sarek so that he didn’t fall face first down onto the carnivorous floor.

She released him as quickly as she was able and turned to find that Hiresh had recovered far faster than was good for Amanda. She ducked back out of the way of the maddened claw strike that Hiresh swung at her midsection. Her tank was shredded across her abdomen and blood blurted from vicious scratches but Amanda missed the worst of it.

Hurling herself a slithering step sideways, Amanda let Hiresh over balance and slammed her fist into the side of the reptile’s head, right over the implant burrowed into her flesh over where her ear might be.

Hiresh screeched again, like a falling eagle. Blood burst from the fractured implant and Amanda clasped her hands together over her head, bringing them down hard on the back of Hiresh’s skull, punching her downward into the sharpened shale of the ground.

Hiresh thrashed, her limbs and tail jerking away from the cuts that assailed her from all sides, rearing up off the ground as soon as she could and _baying_ for Amanda’s blood.

She was barely even winded. Enraged, sore and bleeding from everywhere but it slowed her not at all.

Amanda swore low under her breath and cast a glance at Sarek. If he had to guess at her expression, he might have said that it was filled with regret.

Then she ran.

It was not the first time that Amanda had been running for her life though there certainly seemed to be a lot more riding on this mad dash through the alien labyrinth on a nameless planet.

Not only was an eight foot dinosaur chasing her and literally screaming for her blood, but Amanda had the heart of the Labyrinth to protect and the connection with Sarek to consider. She didn’t know if he’d been telling the truth when he’d said that her being killed might take him with her through their bond, she didn’t know him that well, though it certainly wasn’t something she wanted to leave to chance.

Amanda locked her legs straight, slithering to a halt on the slippery sharp shale and bolted around the hairpin turn in the passageways. She ducked into a tunnel, bent in half to scramble through the narrow opening and swore when the wall speared outward, catching her a deep scoring bite on the shoulder.

Amanda was knocked to the ground, clapping a hand down to prevent landing face first on the swarming shale of the ground. She bared her teeth against the pain when the shale rocked on its side and sliced deep into her palm and fingers.

Amanda shoved off the ground with her injured hand, tucking it close to her side instinctively and then forcing herself to hold it away from her body. She needed to leave a trail. She needed Hiresh to follow her.

If she could find the right spot, then she had a chance. It wasn’t a great chance but her preferred choices of dealing with this situation had been rapidly whittled away as they had left Federation space.

Hiresh crashed out of the tunnel behind Amanda.

Far too close.

The Gorn Queen screamed when she lost her footing too and fell to the ground once more. The sharp shards of rock covering the ground bit deep into her naked scales and Hiresh shoved to her feet with a thrashing flex of her tail.

Amanda swallowed hard, risking a glance back to see her pursuer and really wished she hadn’t.

Hiresh was _pissed_.

The Queen was littered with cuts and bruises. The lacerations oozed red black blood, she was missing some more fangs from where Sarek had hurled Amanda into Hiresh’s teeth. The high plane of one cheekbone had been shorn away entirely by the sharp walls of the labyrinth, she was missing a full third of her tail and it hung awkwardly. Talons had been severed and she bled from everywhere but Hiresh didn’t really seem to notice.

She saw Amanda, prey in her sights again, and _screamed_.

Amanda faced front and poured on the speed. Somehow she didn’t think getting Hiresh to follow her would be a problem. At all.

Amanda _ran_. Arms and legs pumping, fetid air bellowing in and out of her lungs and scorching raw in her throat. Her head swam from lack of oxygen, food and water but she had more pressing needs to attend and adrenaline was a wonderful thing in a pinch.

Amanda slapped at the walls of the labyrinth as she passed. The contact fleeting but more than enough. Amanda was moving too quickly to be speared by the reflexive spurs of crystal that lanced from the wall but Hiresh was right on her heels and not so fortunate.

The Gorn was caught on a black crystal javelin that skewered her shoulder and sent her spinning into the opposite wall. She shrieked when the carnivorous wall clawed at her on that side and wrenched away in order to give chase once more.

Then she was more cautious.

Blood loss was making itself felt. Anger receding in the face of the load of pain she had taken. She slowed to a lope, chasing Amanda more at her own pace. The human Queen might have more endurance than Hiresh had originally suspected but that meant little. She could not run forever. The Humans of the Horizon were not the only hunters here. Hiresh could follow footprints and a blood trail as well as any other predator in the galaxy.

Hiresh jinked and ducked, her sinuous form more suited to snaking through the labyrinth than even Amanda’s smaller self was. She hurdled, ducked and wriggled around the spears of labyrinth wall that snapped outwards like lashing talons in Amanda’s wake.

It did not escape Amanda that she could no longer feel the hot rush of Hiresh’s breath on the back of her neck but she didn’t stop running. She needed more distance between them and to find water.

Despite Sarek’s misgivings, it was a solid plan. Judging by what the Gorn had used to torture her, it was probably painful to them if not outright lethal. It was a gamble, but Amanda had few choices.

Hiresh was running hard and had been for several minutes. Even if she had slowed, her blood was up, her body temperature spiking and she couldn’t self-regulate like a mammal could. Amanda’s best chance was to force her into shock.

If she could find a pool of the fetid water that gathered in certain spots in the labyrinth and lure Hiresh into it…she had a chance.

Perhaps if she kept repeating that to herself, she might believe it too.

Amanda tore around a corner and staggered to a halt.

“No.”

Her voice was hoarse, her eyes wide. Not possible. They were _hours_ away from the heart of the labyrinth. It was why she had urged Sarek to help her act now. She hadn’t wanted to be anywhere _near_ what Hiresh wanted when they made their move.

Still, the entrance to the lair at the centre of the maze yawned before her.

Where the rest of the Labyrinth was hewn, giving all appearances to being naturally formed, the entryway was not. It was carved of serpentine shapes, glaring eyes and sharpened teeth. A dragon’s maw gaped wide before her, the polished stone of the forked tongue coiling towards her as if to drag her inside.

It had appeared to her as a refuge before. The first time she had travelled this way (though she had been certain they had been hours away, absolutely certain) she had gratefully disappeared into the dark. The offer of shade and rest too much for her exhausted self to deny.

It was a mistake she did not plan on making again.

Amanda whirled, desperate to flee, to turn the other way and lead Hiresh away. It was her only chance, to double back and keep the Queen from finding what she had killed so many for.

All the air coughed from Amanda’s lungs when Hiresh _roared_ around the bend in the corridor and tackled Amanda around the waist.

Her pounce carried them several metres backwards, right into the stone dragon’s mouth and the inky blackness of the bottomless gullet beyond.

Hiresh screamed in surprised fright when there was no ground to catch them on the other side.

Amanda closed her eyes.

She knew better than to draw its attention. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're getting to it now, folks!
> 
> Thanks for sticking with me this long. 
> 
> Let me know what you think!


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12 – The Belly of the Beast**

Pain brought Amanda back to the present moment.

A sensation she was unfortunately becoming familiar with.

She did not open her eyes. Not yet. She had a disturbing notion that she knew precisely where she was and was in no hurry to reacquaint herself.

A quick systems check revealed, incredibly, that nothing was broken. She could move her arms and legs. Her neck obeyed her commands rocked her head from side to side. She had a wet stickiness coating one side of her face and she rather imagined that she had that to thank for being knocked senseless. She could feel all of her extremities and nothing seemed to be hanging off, so she was going to take her wins where she could get them.

Finally, when she could put it off no longer, Amanda cautiously opened one eye.

Yep. Exactly where she’d thought she’d be.

Great.

Amanda cautiously looked around, searching for any sign of Hiresh.

If she was _really_ lucky then the fool lizard had snapped her own neck after spear tackling them both down here and Amanda could make her escape unhindered.

A hissing growl sounded not too far away and Amanda froze.

Her luck was continuing on trend it would seem.

Hiresh pushed herself slowly upright, growling to herself and holding one side of her head.

A garbled growl came from deep within Hiresh’s chest Guttural hissing accompanied and Amanda realised that she must have broken Hiresh’s translator in their shenanigans.

“Quiet!” Amanda hissed, rolling onto her front and swatting at the reptile to get her attention. She could only hope that Hiresh could still understand Standard if not speak it. “We need to get out of here.”

Hiresh scowled at Amanda. Apparently much of the fight had literally been knocked out of her because she no longer seemed overly enamoured with murdering Amanda as soon as was physically possible.

“There’s another tunnel out of here. But we need to go _now_.” Amanda’s voice was barely a whisper and she cautiously reached out to tug at Hiresh’s wrist, to try and lead her away.

Hiresh snapped her remaining fangs at Amanda, forcing the human to jerk back out of reach, and wrenched her forelimb from the human’s hold. Her raptor like head lifted to examine her surroundings and she went terribly still at what she saw. Her jaws parted with a low and somehow reverent hiss and her blue eyes were wide as she attempted to take it all in.

Amanda didn’t need to look. She had been fooled too at first.

The chamber they found themselves in was vast. The ceiling stretched high above them and the floor swept downward into a deep and cavernous void of space. They had fallen in through what must be an air vent high above them. One of the only ways into what Amanda guessed had once been a temple eons ago.

Whatever had built this, ancestors of the Gorn themselves perhaps, had been _much_ larger than Hiresh and her fellow reptiles. The steps leading down to the centre of the chamber were broad and cut directly into the black rock face of the planet. Light spilling in through the dragon head vents high above them refracted off the slick walls and allowed a dull sort of illumination to suffuse the whole space.

It was an odd light, as alarming and unnatural as that which had overtaken the labyrinth above in the night. The light seemed to seep from within the rock itself, leaving no shadows. It messed with Amanda’s depth perception and gave everything a flattened surreal quality. It was fine –relatively- so long as she focussed on what was in front of her, but if she tried to take in the chamber as a whole, her grip on reality began to slide.

Amanda had no idea what had been used to carve the temple. The walls rippled like water. Despite it being thousands if not millions of years old. The surfaces slick and unmarred by any tool that Amanda knew of, past or present. Serpentine shapes swirled through the dully glowing walls, like vast creatures swimming in uncharted waters. They spiralled over the walls and down, down, down, to the very centre of the chamber floor.

Everything led down. Everything reaching straight towards the focal point of the temple and Amanda tried once more to pull Hiresh away. As repugnant as this whole experience had been, Amanda didn’t wish what she had seen on the temple floor on anyone.

“Hiresh, _please_ , if you get too close, it will wake.”

Hiresh’s head snapped around, finally noticing that Amanda was there again.

Hiresh garbled something at Amanda and she helplessly shook her head.

“I don’t understand but, whatever that thing is, it’s NOT your god. I promise you.”

Hiresh lunged to her feet suddenly, swaying a little from the battering she had taken on the way here, the blood loss not something she could so easily recover from. Her eyes were fixed far below, on the centre of the temple and Amanda felt her heart sink. The light of fanaticism was brilliant in Hiresh’s eyes and Amanda knew she wouldn’t convince her.

Amanda carefully pushed to her feet. She had to get out of here. If Hiresh was a lost cause then so be it. She couldn’t forcibly remove the Gorn Queen but she could get herself out of danger. She could head back for Sarek, attempt to bargain with the male Gorn and try and get the hell out of dodge.

Try being the operative word.

White flashed across Amanda’s vision. Her feet left the floor before she fully processed that Hiresh had struck her.

An unrestrained blow across the face spun Amanda completely on her heels and spiralled her down to the ground. Luckily for her, the floor of the temple was not programmed to attack any weight upon it or she’d have been minced then and there.

Amanda gasped, head ringing, and could do nothing when Hiresh’s talon closed around the back of her neck. Lifting her from the ground as easily as a dog might snatch up a favoured toy.

Hiresh snapped something at Amanda, she couldn’t understand what, and set to dragging her down towards the lip of the first ‘step’.

In truth, the steps were more like terraced fields on a mountainside. Amanda could no more have run up them than she could the hull of a starship. Each step was several strides wide and had a drop of about two metres down to the next terrace.

Amanda’s stomach swooped when Hiresh dragged her over the edge of the first step and she swore, landing awkwardly in Hiresh’s hold. Her legs smacked against the polished floor, one ankle clunking hard into the other and she twisted, trying to crab walk along in Hiresh’s grip.

“Hiresh,” Amanda gasped, her feet staggering under her allowing her to draw a breath, “Hiresh, it will kill you and everyone that followed you here.”

Hiresh’s only response was a snapping hiss and to jostle Amanda hard enough to make her see stars.

Amanda’s reality twisted when she was dragged down over the next step and landed badly again. God damn, that hurt. She had somehow managed to be dragged down the wall on one hip and shoulder and her pelvis had kinked uncomfortably on landing. She scrambled almost upright again and clutched at the talons digging into her neck.

Luckily for her, Hiresh had lost most of her silver claw sheathes and was missing two of her fingers on the hand she held Amanda with. Otherwise she might well have had a perforated jugular and more sanguine problems to deal with than being battered off every flat surface available.

The hum was beginning to wind into Amanda’s skull again. The deep inaudible vibration emanating from the central dais of the temple rattled in through her jaw and teeth to buzz her skull and shiver down her spine. Amanda winced, trying to shake her head as if to clear water from her ears even if she remembered well that it was useless.

The thrum grew louder and louder the closer they came. The shape loomed high above her and Amanda tried desperately not to look. Eye contact made it worse. If she acknowledged it, it was like letting it into her head. She didn’t want to look. She didn’t want to see it again.

Curiosity and exhaustion had trapped her the first time. She had been so easily snared. She had walked so willingly into the trap. Not now. Not this time. She was dragged unwillingly and had no intention of making it so easy.

Amanda struggled harder against Hiresh. Her fingers tearing at the hold on her nape, her heels digging into the slick floor where she could and her whole body bucking as she tried to duck and twist away. Fear lent a desperate strength to her movements and she wrenched Hiresh to a halt. She lashed out when she saw a gleam of wet flesh and her fingers burrowed into the wound on Hiresh’s thigh all the way to the second knuckle.

Hiresh squealed, ripped away from her entranced prowl towards the dais. Her injuries jarring her back to the mortal plane and the nuisances thereon. She spun with a snarl and the trunk of her tail caught Amanda in the middle. She was batted up off the floor and sent spinning for a stretched weightless second.

Amanda crashed back to the floor with a sickening crack. Tumbling over herself in a wreckage of movement until she smacked to a halt at the base of the temple.

Her eyes flashed open and it snared her.

The denizen of the temple poured into her mind through her hazy gaze and Amanda was dimly aware that the whimpering sound was coming from her own throat. The memories of her first visit roared to the forefront of her mind and she was left helpless in their wake.

She had _forgotten_.

It seemed impossible but she had. She had forgotten the might of it. The weight of it in the landscape of her mind. This huge alien _thing_ that sat in her thoughts the same way black holes lurked in space. Swallowing everything it came across.

 _Hand over your eyes_.

Amanda's arm moved seemingly of its own volition and her palm clapped over her eyes. She sobbed out a relieved breath and her mind went quiet once more. Fractured but still whole.

The memory of it burned her though and she knew that she had been right. She had thought it her imagination when she had left the first time, thought it her enfeebled mind trying to make sense of something she couldn't possibly understand, but she _had_ been right.

It was an egg.

This wasn't a temple, it was a nest.

The egg was perfectly round with a smooth shimmering hull over it. The colours a mix of every shade of molten gold that seemed to ripple and throb in the manner of something liquid rather than solid. Energy pulsed from it in waves, sickening to any that came into contact with it. It was hungry.

Amanda coughed a laugh, high and hysterical. She’d been worried about the wrong thing getting eaten this whole time.

Hiresh wasn't going to eat this egg. She wasn't going to destroy it.

Whatever was inside? Well, that had other motives.

Hiresh was standing over her now, Amanda could sense her shadow even if she stubbornly refused to open her eyes. She could hear Hiresh's low tones, reverent and hissing in the quiet of the nest. She sounded as if she were praying.

Well, she'd best hope the gods that had built this place didn't hear her or they were all screwed.

"Okay," Amanda groaned, rolling onto her belly, "time for me to leave."

She crawled away, hand over hand, her strength returning with every inch she out between herself and the egg.

Energy eater. Had to be.

She didn't know why, but she could actually think this time around. She didn't remember being able to do that the first time.

Amanda inched further away, dragging herself over the slick floor by her fingertips. Hiresh didn't even notice, entranced by the egg and whatever it was inside that was feeding off her adulation. That was what it did, after all. Lured you in with safety in a maze of razors and put on a pretty golden light show to keep you entranced whilst it…

Amanda stalled. 

Clarity poured through her like ice water.

She was crouched at the base of the lowest step. It would be a bitch to get out but she'd done it before.

And that was quite the problem.

Because she had done it before.

She'd come here willingly the first time. Desperate for shelter and safety. She'd wandered willingly into the trap. It had worked perfectly. She had been trapped. Wholly. Completely. She remembered. She hadn’t even wanted to leave.

So, the question then became...how had she ever escaped?

Amanda stared at her reflection in the glassy dark wall of the nest's terraced steps and searched through her memory.

How had she?

How had she broken free? How had she gotten out? She'd been ensnared. Totally and completely. Entirely at the mercy of the inhabitant of the egg and yet...she had left.

Not under her own power, certainly, she couldn't even look at the damn thing without getting trapped again. So how had she gotten out the first time?

Of course, the only logical conclusion was that she had not, in fact, escaped.

She had been let go.

Let go...to lure more people here.

A being capable of navigating the labyrinth was a rarity surely. An energy predator like the one currently feeding on Hiresh must have been starving all the way down here. Alone. Unfed. Uncared for. Abandoned. It had no parents to look after it so why would it not fashion its own means of ensnaring sustenance?

And if sustenance happened to be other people, well, that was just too bad for them, wasn't it?

Amanda stood slowly, an idea forming.

A horrible idea really. One she had no business setting into motion. It was the kind of idea that made a stupid idea feel better about itself but...sometimes needs must.

Because Sarek was on his way. She could feel it. Sarek was on his way and he was bringing the rest of the Gorn and...and Amanda couldn't let that happen.

Shoring up her courage, because this was different to putting a phaser to her head in the heat of the moment, Amanda turned to face her tormentor.

It was different now. The glamour had been ripped away. The scales pulled from her eyes.

The egg was still there. Still throbbing with a greedy energy. It still held Hiresh in its thrall, pulling her close with its hypnotic gravity, but Amanda could see it now. The creature within.

She stepped slowly closer and studied it. A lifetime of observational skills standing her in good stead.

It was large, even as a newborn it would dwarf the largest Gorn. Layers of coils over coils, reptilian or piscine scaled in nature, were tangled within the egg. It was translucent and nacreous pink to her eyes now. She saw feathering or perhaps hair plastered wet to its sides inside the fluid of the egg. In the depths, near the centre was a glimmer that she thought at first was mere light on more scales but it wasn't.

Eyes. It was looking at her now.

"I see you." Amanda stalked closer.

Fear wracked her but she ignored that. It was the creature in her mind again. Jangling her nervous system like bells on a string. She shook with every step but she couldn't allow it to keep hunting. Not like this. Not…

She wouldn't let it.

"Hello in there." Amanda reached the shell of the egg and lifted her hand. The glowing eyes in the depths narrowed and she pressed her palm to be he soft skin of the egg. It gave under that light pressure.

Not hard at all. Barely protection in this harsh environment for the vulnerable creature inside. 

Vulnerable but far from harmless.

"Remember me?" Amanda spoke to it as she had practiced with Sarek. Her touch a conduit through which her thoughts could travel. "I remember you now. I remember all of you."

Amanda pressed experimentally on the sides of the egg. It was warm, hot even, but pliant. Wouldn't take much effort at all to break it really.

"How long have you been doing this, hmm? Sitting here like a sailor's myth and luring the unwary in?" Amanda glanced at Hiresh, the huge reptile on her knees, too weak now to stand. "Thousands of years I'll bet. When did you figure it out? When did you realise that you could get much fatter on _people_ than you could the suns’ rays?"

Hiresh jerked suddenly, her talons clapping to the side of the egg. The Gorn queen shuddered, eyes rolling back in her head and horrid choking gargles spewed from her throat.

"Stop that." Amanda scolded. "I'm not afraid of you."

"Hhhhhuuungreeeyy."

Amanda twisted to look down at Hiresh but blank bloodshot eyes looked back at her. Hiresh's eyes having rolled all the way back in her skull. Her throat contorting and her tongue lashing behind broken fangs. She was hardly suited to making the sounds required of Standard but that was only if she planned on ever speaking again. That wouldn't be a problem. She was little more than a translation matrix now.

"I know you're hungry, that's why this place was built on a planet with two suns. All that solar energy coming for you, twenty-three out of every twenty-eight hour day. Hunger is a need I understand." Amanda pressed closer. "What I don't understand is why you're eating _people."_

"Hungrrrrryy!" It howled again through Hiresh.

"So you did know. You knew they were people and you knew it was wrong and you did it anyway."

"Wrrrronngggg?"

" _Don't"_ Amanda hissed, her anger seemed to buffet the life form, "lie to me. Don’t you dare."

"Whyyyeeee wrongg?" Hiresh wailed for it. "Hungrrrryyyy."

The coils rippled over themselves within the egg. Solid muscle roiling against the thin skin that kept it from this world.

"You can't eat people." Amanda tried to impress upon it. It had been in her head, after all. In there and rearranging things to suit it. Perhaps the connection wasn’t one way. "That's monstrous."

"Sssspiderr and flyyyy." Hiresh's body sagged drunkenly against the egg and Amanda felt the shove against her mind from the creature but it wasn't strong enough. Not anymore.

Must only be able to influence her subconsciously. Well, that made her feel a little better about all the truly moronic decisions she’d made since being captured by the Gorn.

"Yes, what is normal for the spider is chaos to the fly, I know. Those are animals though. You're not an animal. You're not entirely like me either but you're not a mindless beast."

"You...brought...them." It accused.

"I didn't know." Amanda snapped. "But I do now. And it _stops_ now."

"Hungry!" It all but shrieked.

"I don't care!"

"Amanda?"

Amanda twisted, hand slipping over the membrane of the egg and all the air left her lungs.

Sarek stood above her on the lowest terraced step. The smallest Gorn supported him and the rest flanked him. No armour but they held their weapons still.

"Sarek." Ice water poured through Amanda and she knew this was awful even before the egg split open behind her.

"SAREK, RUN!" Amanda hurled herself towards him but it was no use.

The hatchling burst forth from the egg, apparently too hungry to remain within. One taloned foot slapped down across Amanda's back, flattening her to the floor hard enough to knock all the air from her lungs.

It fell on Hiresh's body, her mind already scorched clean of the shell of her skull, and it tore into her with great ripping fangs. Newborn or not, the creature was lethal. It gulped down Hiresh in no more than four great bites of its jaws and then lifted its head, glowing eyes narrowed as it searched for its next meal.

Its eyes met Amanda's but did not linger. It looked beyond her for its next victim.

Amanda frowned but lunged forward. She didn't have time to wait for the thought to fully form.

"Don't shoot!" She screamed at the Gorn when they lifted their weapons. "Don't you dare fucking shoot it!"

They hesitated and it cost one of them their life.

The Gorn died screaming as the creature fell on it, devouring him in great snapping bites, gorging itself on the bounty of free meat in front of it.

Well, not all the meat, it turned away from Amanda again when she hurled herself at the lowest step and scrambled up towards Sarek.

"Get behind me." Amanda clasped Sarek’s hand gratefully and let him pull her up. "All of you get behind me!" 

Amanda turned and it was _right there._

It was huge. Easily five metres long and made of coil over coil of solid muscle. The creature supported its weight on four bird like talons though it seemed to touch the floor almost as an afterthought. It had a long snout that did look a little Gorn-like but the resemblance was short-lived. The creature had long tufted ears where the Gorn did not, the beginnings of horns crowned its head and long trailing whiskers twitched and whisked through the air. Scenting for food. It looked not unlike the thousands of carvings, paintings and stories that told of dragons in ancient Asia.

It screamed, advancing on Amanda with great snaps of its jaws.

Sarek's arm tightened around her waist but she gripped him fiercely, preventing him from shielding her with his body as he wished to.

"Wait." She urged him. "Just wait."

The creature screamed again, lifting a talon and raking the air. Missing Amanda by a hair's breadth. 

Though it did not strike her.

It jinked to the side, trying to get around her but Amanda twisted into its path, keeping herself between her and it.

The creature hissed long and low, displeased but it never moved to attack her.

"I said no." Amanda reminded it. "This stops now. You know better."

It screamed at her again.

"Am I correct in thinking that it wishes to devour us?" Sarek murmured.

"Well, everyone bar me." Amanda lifted a shoulder in a shrug, never taking her eyes off the hatchling. 

"Any suggestions on how to get out of here?" Sarek couldn't really see how Amanda was going to protect him and the quavering Gorn behind him whilst negotiating the terraced steps out of the nest up to the labyrinth proper.

"Dunno if you've noticed, _kochanek_ , but I'm kind of making this up as I go." Amanda muttered.

"I had noticed." Sarek's tone was this side of sarcastic, for a Vulcan and Amanda might have elbowed him had the creature not decided to do something new.

It threw back its head and called out to the ceiling of the nest. Again and again, it's cries plaintive and warbling. It sounded then every inch the newborn and it was almost easy to forget that it had eaten two full grown Gorn in seconds without any effort at all.

"What is it doing?" Sarek asked Amanda as if she were the resident expert on alien dragons all of a sudden.

"Umm…" Amanda glanced about the cavern and was disconcerted to note the thrumming glow in the walls. The way they seemed to _ripple_ like the water they had been carved to resemble.

The low tremor that started as an insidious shiver beneath their feet and rose to a tooth rattling crescendo.

Amanda clung to Sarek and hated to admit that she might know what was going on.

"I think it's calling its parents!" She shouted to be heard over the creature’s calls and the violent rumbling of the shaking cavern.

Sarek looked up, blinking rapidly in what Amanda had come to recognise as surprise from him.

"I believe you to be right."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Space weirdness is fun. 
> 
> Just when Sarek and Amanda were perhaps thinking it couldn't get any worse...


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE DRAMA CONTINUES!

**Chapter 13 – The Joys of Parenthood**

“Any suggestions?” Amanda stared up the ceiling of the temple nest and watched as the rock there seemed to ripple and _tear_ in a manner she didn’t believe fitting for the laws of physics in this dimension.

“I do have the strong urge to run screaming from the room.” Sarek’s voice, perfectly calm, rumbled against her ear.

She could barely hear him over the howling wind that had come from nowhere. The thundering rumble of the quaking walls around them was joined by clouds that billowed from the tear in the air above them. Black energy like lightning thrashed between the purple clouds, golden sparks shimmered wherever it struck and Amanda wondered briefly how the hell she’d become the spokesperson for the group when at least a dozen Gorn cowered behind her.

“ _Can_ you run?!” Amanda shouted to be heard over the noise, the life form was still screaming into the storm.

“Not well.” Sarek admitted.

“Then we stay.” Amanda’s hand tightened around his wrist. His arm still anchored around her waist. Just as well because the whipping wind threatened to lift her from the floor with its power.

“You can run.” Sarek told her firmly.

“Nope.” Amanda shook her head.

“You _can_.”

“I will NOT.” Amanda twisted to look back at him, breathing hard, she met his black gaze with her own and refused to back down. “You promised. We’re in this together.”

“A horrible decision, in hindsight.” He all but grumbled into her whipping hair. “Do you have a plan at least?”

“Something like one.” Amanda nodded and braced herself against the wind that howled harsher, pulling at her clothes.

So fierce was the sudden indoor weather that it was succeeding in dragging both her and Sarek a few inches towards the storm’s eye over the glassy floor. No one was more surprised than Amanda when Gorn talons closed around Sarek’s shoulder and fisted in his undershirt in order to anchor him and he Amanda.

“Told you the female thing would work!” Amanda twisted to look at Sarek again, a slightly manic grin on her lips and he blinked at her rapidly and then nodded.

What else could he do? She had told him.

They arrived with a mental weight that dropped on Amanda’s mind like a brick onto her skull.

“Jesus. Fuck.” Amanda’s legs buckled, Sarek saving her from hitting the floor and blood began to trickle from her nose.

Talons, huge, like a monstrous eagle, clawed through the tear in reality above them. A whiskered snout shoved through the opening, antler like horns broad enough to hold a shuttlecraft in their rack tore through next. The sharp silvery prongs raking back and forth, shredding a wider hole through which the adult life form could slink through. Then came the coils. Roils and roils of sinuous snakelike body tumbling over itself and spilling out from the ceiling. Silver talons raked the air as it dropped into gravity like ink in water and then hung like a miasma above them. A smoky mane billowed along the length of its body, tail lashing and eyes burned like suns from its head.

The Gorn behind Sarek and Amanda dropped to their knees, bowing forward until their snouts touched the glass floor.

A second creature, this as large as the first, thundered into the temple like an oncoming storm.

Amanda screamed when that presence crowded into her skull as well. She felt as if she were trying to contain a hurricane within her head. Her hands clapped to her temples, nails digging into her scalp and she screamed wetly around the blood now pouring from her nose. The whites of her eyes flooded red as the blood vessels burst.

Sarek’s hand shoved beneath hers, his fingers sliding over her skin, pushing into the pressure points on her brow, cheek and jaw and his mind shouldered between hers and the creatures.

He seethed out a single pained gasp at whatever it cost him to do so but he was a solid presence in her mind between Amanda and the hatchling’s parents.

She still couldn’t stand, her legs useless, she could barely see and her ears were ringing as if she was never going to hear a particular tone again, but she could _breathe_. Amanda clung to Sarek’s arm around her waist, some part of her mind inanely noting that it was surprising he could hold them both up on one leg, but she pushed that aside in favour of remembering how respiration worked.

Amanda scrubbed at her eyes, wiping away bloodied tears but careful not to dislodge Sarek’s hold on her. His mind had tangled with hers in a much deeper connection than they had ever forged before. Where it had been akin to two hands clasping before, fingers tangled, it was as if he had turned them both liquid. Their selves flowing in amongst one another. She could no longer tell where she ended and he began.

But she was alive and that was good enough for now.

“I’m okay.” Amanda rasped, her voice abused and disused, but shockingly audible in the suddenly silent cavern.

“You are far from it.” Sarek’s voice did not quaver but she had the sense that was only because of his iron control preventing such things.

“Thank you.” Amanda was breathing hard but she managed to torture her legs beneath herself, taking some of her own physical weight at least. “Look. I was right. Parents. Yay.”

Amanda waved drunkenly and Sarek dutifully followed her gaze. He pushed aside the agony that he had felt in shielding her from the mind presence of the two adult life forms that now dominated the cavern and turned instead to witnessing something that no other humanoid probably had.

“Look like dragons.” Amanda murmured, her hands wrapped around his arm, her nails prickling against his skin but Sarek thought she probably needed to hold on for dear life. Her mind was still fragile, nearly smashed to pieces just by the presence of her two ‘dragons’.

“Like komodos?” Sarek raised a brow. He had not seen anything in briefing packets about this sort of creature inhabiting Earth.

“No, they’re myths, not real. Every ancient culture on Earth wrote about them though. Or drew pictures.” Amanda wobbled a little, trying to stand entirely under her own power, but she was growing stronger by the minute and did not fall. “Look like Asian dragons. They were supposed to be gods. I think. Friendly.”

“We can but hope.” Sarek murmured.

The two dragons –for lack of a better term- hung in the air as if gravity was of no concern to them. They moved as something liquid or smoke rather than anything physical though they appeared solid enough. They hovered over their hatchling, huge noses lowering towards the floor to nuzzle at the creature. Their fleshy sensory whiskers tapping over it from snout to tail. They tasted it with split tongues and rumbled low mind sounds that thrummed inside Amanda and Sarek’s skulls uncomfortably.

“ _I_ hope they don’t want conversation.” Amanda muttered fervently.

“Might we try and leave _now_?” Sarek offered.

“I have no idea. They have to be aware of us, but they don’t seem to care.” Amanda lifted a weary shoulder in a lopsided shrug.

“Do you typically care for ants?” Sarek murmured into her ear.

Two draconian heads turned to look right at them.

“Then again, perhaps not.” Sarek admitted.

One of the creatures lifted its body through the air with a great rush of scales over scales. It swam through the air with a careless ease and hovered before them. Glowing eyes brighter than any stars Amanda had ever seen bored down at them and huge jaws parted with one great, hot, breath.

Amanda’s brain attempted to think of fire spewing from between those great ivory fangs but she shoved that thought aside lest the creature hear it. She’d rather not encourage it.

The Gorn broke.

With a fluting cry, the smallest ducked away from behind Sarek and hurled himself up onto the terrace above them. He sprinted on all fours, moving faster than Amanda had ever seen any of the Gorn go and it did him no good whatsoever.

The dragon hanging in the air struck. Faster than a snake, faster than anything. Amanda could barely breathe at the thought of a being so vast being able to move so quickly and so _silently_. The dragon closed its jaws around the heels of the Gorn, hoisting him effortlessly out of the air mid leap as he tried to make it to the next terrace.

The Gorn screamed as his legs were crushed in that terrible grip and the sound was cut off sharply with a single tousle of the dragon’s great head that snapped the Gorn’s spine with little effort.

The rest of the Gorn scattered.

“No. Wait!” Amanda twisted but she was hampered by trying to hold Sarek up and he holding her mind together.

The dragon flung its first victim over its tail towards its mate and child and then lifted both forelimbs, talons splaying wide. An unmistakable grin lit the dragon’s face and a low hiss of anticipation rattled from it as it tracked its prey.

It snatched up one Gorn, then another. They screamed and the lucky ones were killed before they were thrown to the second dragon and the hatchling. Those that didn’t die right away, wished they had as they were torn apart.

“Wait.” Amanda, reached up, pulling Sarek’s hand from her face. She couldn’t watch this. It was senseless slaughter and these creatures didn’t even have to eat meat. Amanda pushed forward before Sarek could grip her wrist, yanking her to a halt.

 _“STOP!”_ Amanda’s hand thrust up with her shout, pushing outward with her mind as well as her voice and the hunting dragon froze.

So did the Gorn. Everyone stopped.

Sarek hung on to her wrist and Amanda was still a moment, the only sound in the cavern her ragged breathing. She twisted her hand in Sarek’s hold, tangling their fingers together.

 _Help me_. She pleaded with him and, though he was reluctant, preferring to be ignored and perhaps survive this whole escapade, he loaned his strength to her.

“Please don’t eat them. Please. They are people. They worship you.” Amanda spoke to the dragons and the one hovering over them rather than coiled around the hatchling turned to her with interest. She knew Sarek was projecting for her, she just hoped it would work.

The dragon tumbled over its own tail, coils slithering amongst themselves, and it loomed closer to them. Its huge face taking up Amanda’s whole world, its antlers spread wider than the branches of the eldest trees and Amanda swallowed hard but didn’t back down.

“They don’t deserve to die.” She tried again.

The dragon cocked its head, mane wafting like kelp at high tide, and its burning eyes tracked between Amanda’s face, to her hand joined with Sarek’s and then to Sarek’s face. Back to Amanda.

**_SO YOU CAN TALK._ **

Amanda sucked in a breath, surprised when that huge voice echoed throughout the cavern and within her head at the same time. It was an ancient sound, like whale song or a waterfall, like waves on the beach more than any sort of voice but she understood just fine. Shoring up what scant reserves of sheer nerve she had left, Amanda spoke again.

“They’re no threat to you. You do not need to eat them. Can you not feed from the sun, as your young did before you arrived?”

**_THEY HURT YOU, MIDWIFE. WHY SHOULD YOU NOT WISH THEM ILL?_ **

Midwife? Amanda shook her head sharply rather than get caught up on trivialities.

“I’ll survive. If you eat them, they won’t. There’s been enough death to bring us here.” Amanda swallowed hard.

**_THIS…’DEATH’…IT UPSETS YOU?_ **

“We’re not energy as you are. We don’t survive the destruction of this form.” Amanda thumped herself on the chest to indicate her body. Maybe they didn’t know. They had come from a different dimension after all.

 ** _YOU ARE INJURED, MIDWIFE. AS IS YOUR MATE. YOU DESERVE A BOON FOR WHELPING OUR YOUNG ONE. SHOULD IT NOT BE THE DESTRUCTION OF THOSE THAT HARM YOU?_** The dragon tilted its head the other way, long whiskers trailing from its jaws and tasting the air around Amanda. Going so far as to brush where her hand joined Sarek’s.

“No!” Amanda shook her head. “That’s not our way. At least, we try for it to not be our way. He’s better at that than I am.” Amanda jerked her head to indicate Sarek.

The dragon watched Amanda for a long and unblinking moment. Amanda had the sense that it was not so much looking at her as…the events that had preceded her arrival here. She couldn’t say why she had that sense but it seemed confirmed when the life form next spoke.

 ** _THESE SMALL ONES KILLED MANY OF YOUR KIN IN THEIR QUEST TO FIND US. THIS PAINS YOU BECAUSE IT PAINS YOUR MATE?_** The dragon was guessing but Amanda was hardly going to disagree.

“Uh, yes?” Amanda glanced back at Sarek, asking if that were true with her eyes.

“If this had to have happened, I would rather there had been minimal harm caused.” Sarek nodded slowly.

 ** _YOU ARE OWED BOONS BY WE THREE, LET THIS BE HIS._** The dragon spoke to Amanda and then tilted its head back, a deep sound coming from somewhere within its body that somehow seemed even larger than it was. As if there were a whole other universe singing from within it.

 _Something_ …happened.

Amanda staggered as the world seemed to _shiver_ around her. There was no great flash of light but her vision bleached for a second. The earth did not move but she staggered anyway. There was a sense of something huge being shifted whilst nothing moved at all and Amanda pushed down the very strong urge to throw up. Oh, she hadn’t liked that at all.

Looking about and seeing that the Gorn were gone, every single one of them, even the dead ones the hatchling and second parent had not eaten, Amanda’s brows rose and her mouth dropped open.

 ** _THEY ARE NOT DEAD, MIDWIFE AND MATE. A FRACTION OF TIME HAS BEEN REWRITTEN AS IT WAS WISHED. THESE THINGS MUST COME TO PASS BUT THE HARM HAS BEEN MINIMISED. AT YOUR REQUEST._** The dragon dipped its chin in a deep nod and Amanda found her spine curling forward to return the bow before she even consciously thought of it. **_WHAT OTHER BOONS MAY WE GRANT?_**

 _Time rewritten?_ Amanda worked down the very real urge to gape because _what the fuck?_ Had they actually done that? Could it do that?! Amanda glanced back at Sarek and a sudden fable nudged at her thoughts. She turned back to the dragon. Well, she was looking at a dragon, why couldn’t another myth be real?

“Wishes. You grant wishes.” Amanda licked her lips nervously and cleared her throat. Her fingers tightened on Sarek’s and he picked up on her fear.

There had been many myths of wishes granted in human history. From mermaids caught by the tail, to genies summoned from bottles to demons and even dragons themselves. Those stories that had not been sanitised for children held a common theme; be careful what you wished for…

…and always use the last wish to put the genie back in the bottle.

The dragon lifted its head from another deep bow and Amanda hurriedly returned it, her mind frantically racing. Could she do this? Was it stupid?

Well, probably, but more pertinently, did she have another option?

All indicators pointed towards negative.

 _Fuck it_ , she thought. She gave Sarek’s hand a squeeze in case this went terribly and spoke again.

“I wish nothing more than for your safe return to your own realm, that we part on friendly terms and remain so.” Amanda fought down a wince at the wording, hoping that it wasn’t going to come back to bite her or anyone else.

The dragon tilted its head. Eyes burning into Amanda and then lancing to Sarek.

**_THIS IS SO?_ **

Sarek dipped his chin in a nod, taking Amanda’s lead on this because it wasn’t like he knew any more about what was going on than she did.

 ** _THEN IT IS DONE_**.

The dragon bowed its head once more. Amanda returned the gesture and, when she straightened again, the cavern was empty.

Amanda gulped, staring about, making sure there was no trace of the dragons.

It was only her and Sarek. He still held tightly to her hand, his mind still all but welded to hers. If she hadn’t had his steadying presence then she might well have believed the whole thing a hallucination but they were alone. No dragons. No Gorn. Not even a trace of the vitreous fluids that had spilled from the egg in its hatching.

All that remained was a single scale, resting on the ground at her feet. It was huge, the size of her palm and every colour all at the same time as it was none of them. Amanda crouched low, picking it up before she thought on that being a monumentally moronic idea.

She sucked in a breath when the dragon’s voice echoed once more.

 ** _YOUR THIRD WISH IS NOT FORGOTTEN_**.

“Ooo-ooh-kay.” Amanda gulped and made to drop the scale.

“Inadvisable.” Sarek hopped to stand level with her. “We would not wish to insult them.”

“Right. ‘Course not. _Definitely_ not.” Amanda straightened up with barely a wobble and stuffed the iridescent scale into her pocket. She ducked closer to Sarek, situating herself beneath his shoulder to help him stand and wrapping both arms around his waist.

If he noticed that it was more for her comfort than his then he said nothing. Instead, he curled an arm around her shoulders and held her close.

“Do you think they really rewrote time?”

“I do not know.” Sarek admitted and turned to look back the way they had come.

He and the Gorn had been forced to find an alternate route to the centre of the labyrinth. They had not had the tools to rappel safely down the same entrance Hiresh and Amanda had evidently fallen through but there had been other ways inside. Other ways which might now serve as an exit. Sarek measured the terraces between them and the tunnel to the surface. If he had been human, he might have sighed.

“What is it?” Amanda looked up at him. “Your foot?”

“My foot is acceptable.” Sarek decided not to tell her that it felt heated and throbbing. She was exhausted both physically and mentally and had not the stamina for such things as discourse with beings on a higher plane of existence.

Not that Sarek had any experience with same either but his species at least had evolved with some mental capabilities that extended beyond their own bodies.

“Your foot stings like a bitch and you think it’s going septic.” Amanda drawled.

Ah, yes, their minds were still tangled amongst one another’s.

“Not the words I would have chosen to use to express such information.”

“Uh-huh. Come on, we’d better get out of here.” Amanda turned, pulling him gently with her towards the gigantic hewn steps they would need to climb one after the other to escape.

“You should have wished for a stepladder of some sort.” Sarek noted idly. “Perhaps a large box.”

Amanda burst out laughing and Sarek’s eyes smiled in return. He felt much of the tension drain from her with the action. Sarek wondered about the phrase of ‘the best medicine is laughter’ that he had heard from humans before. Perhaps there was something to that. For humans anyway.

“Bite your tongue. I dread to think what our scaly overlords would have come up with at such a request if they rewrote time for you rather than just _not eating_ the rest of the Gorn.” Amanda walked them to the base of the next step. She considered a moment. “You can’t use me as a step with your broken foot.”

“I shall lift you then jump and make the climb.” Sarek informed her. He continued when she made to protest. “Unless you should like to wish for a shuttlecraft?”

“Alright, smartass. I was doing the best I could. Wishes never work out well in all the fairy tales.” Amanda turned to face the wall, Sarek gripping her about the waist and then hoisting her straight up, letting her scramble easily onto the terrace above.

“Fairy tales?” Sarek barely grunted as he powered up after her, his one good leg propelling him far enough to hook his arms over the edge of the terrace.

Amanda gripped him under the arms, pulling him but the shoulders and with a graceless scrambling from his good leg, managed to haul him up after her.

Cool, only eleven more to go. 

“Wishes are common in Earth myths but there’s usually an undercurrent of danger to them. In the stories, whoever is granted the wishes has usually released a being of great power or crossed one in some way. The granter of the wishes does not have their best interests at heart. Whatever they wish for, it usually ends horribly for them.” Amanda breathed heavily for a moment before managing to convince herself to stand up. “In a lot of the stories, the last wish always had to be used to send the creature back to where it had come from so it couldn’t wreak havoc across the world. They were fables meant to caution against the misuse of power and –I guess- messing around with forces that you had no business fooling around with.”

“A wise course of action.” Sarek allowed, letting Amanda help him upright and they struggled towards the next step. “Is this the purpose of all stories on Earth?”

“To warn our children? Teach lessons?” Amanda let herself be hoisted up onto the next step, ignoring the screaming in her arms and abs as she struggled up over the edge. “Yeah. A lot of them.”

“Fascinating.” Sarek took two attempts to follow her up onto the next terrace.

“Sarek?” Amanda panted, hauling him up when he managed to gain enough purchase to do so.

“Yes?”

“Shut up and climb.”

“Yes.”

It was an arduous, muscle burning, back breaking task. They scrambled and clawed and grunted their way up over each step. Each victory hard won and finally made it to the level of the tunnel.

By that point, neither of them had the air to spare for words and agreed silently to make their way through the first tunnel they came across. Sarek pointed her to the one they had come down, he and the Gorn, and they hobbled that way.

Sarek’s foot ached. Heat belted from his skin as fever rose within his blood. His foot must certainly be infected, the bolt still stuck within it shifting minutely with every limping step he took and pain consumed more and more of his thoughts before they could properly form.

“Stop, stop here.”

Sarek leaned against the glassy tunnel of the wall at Amanda’s instruction and slid down to sit heavily against it. His chest heaved with every breath and he was momentarily envious of Amanda’s ability to perspire. Her skin glistened with it and he thought the evaporating moisture must feel wonderfully cool in comparison to the Vulcan like heat of his own flesh.

“You’re burning.” Amanda’s palm, cool against his forehead, soothed him a moment. “You can’t make the walk through the labyrinth. Not like this.”

“I must.” Sarek said between deep gulps of air. “I will not have you stay here with me.”

“Ssshhh. Hush now, I’m not going anywhere.” Amanda smiled, cupping his face in her hands.

Sarek blinked heavily, struggling to stay conscious. He had to fight to stay awake. He had given his word and more importantly, so had she, that whatever happened it would happen to them both. He could not lie here and lapse into unconsciousness because he knew that she would not leave him here to die alone. She would stay and humans could only last a short time without water. She was already dehydrated and the thought of her dying of thirst rattled around in Sarek’s skull like shrapnel.

“I’m alright. I’m okay. We’re going to be okay.” Amanda’s grip on his face changed and Sarek made a low sound of protest when he felt her fingers slide over the psy-points on his face. How did she know?

Well, she had seen and felt him do it and she was remarkable, he should hardly be surprised.

“Sleep now. Sleep. We’ll move again when you’re ready.”

“You have to go…leave me.” Sarek tried even though he knew it was futile.

Amanda only smiled at him, leaning forward and pressing her lips to his forehead.

“Can’t do that, _kochanek_. I promised, remember?”

“You can still…live.” Sarek gasped, attempting to resist the mental pressure she exerted against him to sleep.

She was far from adept at such things but she was a quick learner and seemed to find herself entirely at home within his mind. Able to suggest things to it without the need of his input. That and the physical exhaustion already plaguing him…it was a losing battle.

“We’re both going to live.” Amanda stroked his hair when he finally slumped, succumbing to sleep. She settled beside him on the floor of the tunnel, letting him slip sideways so he rested over her lap. She cradled his head and rested her own back against the wall of the tunnel.

She could feel the fever boiling through him. See the wetness seep into the makeshift bandage she had wrapped about the bolt still bisecting his foot. She bit her lip against the uncomfortable knowledge that there was very little she could do to help him.

Still, she had promised him. They had promised one another.

Whatever happened.

Together. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, will these two ever catch a break?
> 
> I sure do hope so.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14 – Confusion in the Chain of Command**

“…Grayson?!”

“Doctor Grayson?!”

“Ambassador Sarek!”

Amanda’s head lolled. Her mouth opening, dry and sticky. She was ragged with thirst.

Her fingers flexed minutely, stiff from remaining over Sarek’s forehead. He still burned beneath her and something made it through her brain that it was a good sign. If he was still warm then he was still alive and that was more than she had expected.

“HERE!”

“Paris?!”

“HERE! I HAVE THEM!”

Amanda flinched when a shadow loomed over her, her hand lifting, fingers clawed as if she had talons of her own but she was stalled before she could do anything. An iron grip manacled around her wrist and a soft husky voice belonged to what resolved itself into a human shape.

“Easy, Doctor Grayson, we’re friends. We’re friendly.”

Amanda’s head lolled and she made a sound that wanted to be a word but didn’t have the qualifications. She coughed raggedly.

“Paris?” Feet skittered to a halt in the mouth of the tunnel and Amanda, half blind with exhaustion, could only make out a vague humanoid shape there. “Here, give her this.”

“Here. Water. Here.” Paris took a canteen, sloshing and heavy from her companion and pushed it towards Amanda’s mouth.

Craven instinct galvanised Amanda and she found the energy from somewhere to grip the canteen in her free hand and tilt it to her lips, drinking deeply. She nearly choked but drank her fill, stopping halfway and gasping heavily.

“Medics?” Her voice rasped as if she hadn’t used it in a thousand years and she cared not at all to find out if that had been the case. The dragons had rewritten time, after all.

“On their way.” Paris confirmed and turned to her companion. “Georgiou, hurry them up, will you?”

“On it.” The second voice, female with a slightly stronger accent than Paris’ receded with the crunch of footsteps out into the labyrinth proper.

“We are very glad to have found you, Doctor Grayson.” Paris was running a tricorder over Amanda and then Sarek.

“You’re glad to have found him.” Amanda corrected her but didn’t feel the need to dwell. “He got shot in the foot. It’s infected.”

“Shot?”

“A bolt gun. Right through his foot.” Amanda shook her head sharply, inhaling deeply and forced her last two brain cells to get their damn act together. She had shit to do. “We need to get him to an infirmary. Help me lift him.”

“Doctor Grayson, we shouldn’t- -!”

“I don’t have _time_.” Amanda snapped, looking up at Paris for the first time.

She was human, dark hair, dark eyes, something of the Middle East in her bone structure that matched her faintly accented Standard but Amanda chose not to dwell on it.

“Teleporters don’t work in here. Neither do communicators.” Amanda shoved to her feet, wriggling out from under Sarek and then gripping him by the shoulders, hauling his torso up off the floor. Good grief, he was heavy. “That was the why of all the yelling. So we have to carry him out.”

Paris huffed out something like annoyance at recognising her search and rescue victim wasn’t going to play the victim and shoved to her feet, helping Amanda haul Sarek up off the ground.

“Vulcan density is no joke.” Paris wheezed.

“Tell me about it.” Amanda shouldered Sarek with a strength that was just short of unbelievable.

Paris took the other shoulder, draping the unconscious Ambassador’s arm over her shoulders and lifting with her legs, but it was clear that Amanda supported the bulk of him. Paris glanced at Amanda, incredulous. The woman was a wreck. Littered with cuts and bruises, one hand caked in blood and lacerations, smears of more blood tracking from her eyes and nose as if her brain had been near liquefied and her eyes were so bloodshot as to be borderline demonic.

Still, she lifted the Ambassador with a will and staggered towards the mouth of the tunnel.

“You guys had better have brought a…” Amanda stepped out into the blistering light of twin stars and looked up when a shadow cut across the searing rays. A smile split her face near in two. “…shuttlecraft.”

The tremendous downdraft of plasma manifold engines thundered around her kicking up bits of shale that bit into her legs and ripped at her trousers but she didn’t care. The shuttle’s engines whined as it spun slowly in the air, clouds of dust billowed around it from the power of the engines and it took Amanda a moment to notice that the oddity of the shuttle’s silhouette was a crewmember hanging out the back of it on some kind of harness.

She turned, shouting something into the belly of the shuttle and the craft halted its spin. Without further hesitation, the human female did something to her harness and leapt out of the back of the craft. With a reeling _zap_ the cable holding her there spooled out, lowering her at brow raising speed into the labyrinth.

“Turns out the effect of the rock has a ceiling of only thirty feet.” The petite woman grinned as she dropped to a crouch in front of Amanda. She winked at Paris. “Told you it would work.”

“Shut it, Georgiou. Help me get the Ambassador aboard.” Paris jerked her head towards Sarek, hanging limply between her and Amanda and Georgiou nodded. Darting forward and producing another sling like harness in which to bundle unconscious Vulcans.

Amanda helped them manoeuvre Sarek’s bulk into the sling, attached to Georgiou’s harness as it was and didn’t so much as raise a brow when the tiny Asian woman had the slack taken up on her cable and wrapped her legs around Sarek’s waist.

Amanda ignored the stupid streak of something very like possessiveness that went through her and focused on staying upright.

“Don’t worry, Doctor, you get the same treatment next.” Georgiou grinned, shouting to be heard over the shuttlecraft engines and then worked the controls of her harness once more.

She and Sarek were lifted off the ground and up towards the belly of the shuttlecraft. Another two crew wearing the white uniform of Starfleet medical appeared at the rear of the craft, carefully pulling Georgiou and Sarek inside.

“You looked for us the old fashioned way.” Amanda spoke, her throat a dry croak of sound. She lifted her hand to shield her eyes against the suns, watching even after Sarek had disappeared from her view.

“Seemed the best way forward.” Paris nodded.

“Huh.” Amanda grunted.

“It worked, didn’t it?”

“Of course it worked. I just didn’t credit Starfleet with being that smart.”

“You’re welcome.” Paris drawled and Amanda grinned.

“Hot damn. Professionals.” Amanda watched as Georgiou reappeared, swinging herself out the back of the shuttle again and dangling from her harness. The cable unspooled and she zipped down again to land before them with a practiced ease. Clearly enjoying herself.

“Doctor Grayson, let me take you warmly by the waist.”

Amanda faltered then stepped back.

“Paris first.”

“Doctor- -!” Paris made to protest but Amanda shook her head.

“You don’t know what happened here. Trust me when I tell you that I should be the last one to leave.”

A speaking glance passed between Philippa and Georgiou and Amanda could tell they were considering physically overpowering her and bundling her into the harness anyway.

“Ladies, I’ve seen enough pain today. Don’t cause more.”

Georgiou looked Amanda up and down and she could tell that she was being measured and weighed. She had little doubt that Georgiou excelled in close quarters combat, she recognised the stance, had seen enough warriors to know the bearing of one from a mile off.

“It’s against regulations, Doctor. We’re not leaving you here alone. Not even for as long as it takes to get me up the shuttle and Georgiou back.” Paris shook her head. Immovable and Amanda wanted to shake her.

“Together then.” Amanda looked between them. “I can’t explain it, but I don’t think this place is going to hang around once I leave. It served its purpose.”

Paris watched her for a long moment, dark tendrils of hair whipping from the tight bun it was tied back into. She glanced at Georgiou.

“The winch will take it?”

“Unless your bones are made of plutonium?” Georgiou arched one eyebrow and was already lifting the sling, wisely putting it over Paris’ head first before attempting to get Amanda into it.

Amanda finally acquiesced to being bundled into the sling. It was a tight fit, pressed up against Paris and under other circumstances she probably wouldn’t have said no but she just wanted off the damn planet.

Georgiou took up the slack, the band of the sling rising up, digging into Amanda and Paris’ armpits and lifting them up onto their tiptoes.

“Hold on, ladies.” Georgiou glanced down at them.

“Brace yourselves.” Amanda murmured.

The collapse began as soon as her feet left the ground.

Paris yelped at the sudden lack of ground beneath her feet. There was no real noise, nothing like the cacophony that should have been expected from the collapse of a structure the size of the labyrinth.

Though that was what it did.

The entire structure, from the shale to the crystalline walls, seemed to lose cohesion and just _dissolve_.

Georgiou swore, working the controls of her harness and spooling them hurriedly up towards the shuttle that bounced in the air with the sudden change in pressure beneath it.

Amanda twisted, watching the ground literally fall away beneath her. The labyrinth shattering into glass sand and filtering away with barely a sound. Great clouds of dust billowed from the sudden shift in air current, they swung wildly from their cable beneath the shuttle and Georgiou yelped when her shoulder cracked off the rear doors of the shuttle.

Amanda winced and Paris cursed but Georgiou shook them off. Wordlessly insisting that she was fine. She wrestled them all into the back of the shuttle and they were set upon by medics.

“What the hell was that?” A doctor demanded. “The whole place just up and dissolved!”

Paris wrenched free of the harness and tracked to the still open rear door of the shuttle. She hung onto the webbing above the door to keep her feet and swayed in time with the steadying shuttle as it rocked like a boat upon choppy seas. She gaped down at what was left beneath them.

A hole.

A gigantic crater was left where the maze had been. It was _miles_ across as the labyrinth had been, the outer edges still crumbling in on themselves, sending billows of glassy dust up into the air. She couldn’t see the bottom of the crater, filling with shimmering particles that remained of the crystal labyrinth but it had to be _deep_. A great bite taken out of the landscape. Just _gone_ as if it had never been in the first place. Spirited away to another world.

Paris twisted to look back at the people she had just rescued.

Ambassador Sarek was secured on a portable biobed. He was strapped in for the journey, two medics hovering over him, monitoring his vitals and administering treatment already. Amanda Grayson stood unaided on the deck of the shuttle, shifting with the pitch and roll of it beneath her like a seasoned sailor. She waved off the medic that buzzed around her and shoved them bodily towards Georgiou who was holding her shoulder onto her body with an expression of deep discomfort.

Her eyes met Paris’ and she didn’t seem at all fazed when the lieutenant stalked across the shuttle to stand before her.

“How did you know that was going to happen?!”

“Gut feeling.” Amanda’s voice suddenly boomed loud in the interior of the shuttle as the doors finally shut behind them. She cleared her throat and spoke in a gentler tone. “You should really get us out of here.”

Paris thought about arguing but she wasn’t an idiot. Grayson obviously knew more about what was going on here than they did and this had been a whackadoodle mission from the very start. It looked like the weirdness wasn’t going to let up any time soon.

“Take a seat, Doctor. We’ll take you home.” Paris indicated one of the empty seats and called out to her pilot. “Jenkins, get us the hell out of here.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The pilot nodded and his fingers flew over the controls. He certainly didn’t need to be told twice.

“I do enjoy a good yes man,” Amanda lowered herself onto her seat with a wince, “so underrated in our society today.”

Paris glanced over at the Ambassador, not having missed the way Amanda had taken the seat closest to him and turned back to her charge.

“Doctor Grayson, can you explain…” Paris let her question die.

Amanda Grayson had passed out.

**_Later, Aboard the_ USS Arcadia…**

“Doctor Grayson, mind if I join you?”

Amanda looked up from attempting to fit a whole cheeseburger into her mouth at once and halted the bun halfway to her lips. She hummed deep in her throat, looking the woman up and down.

“You would be the shrink then.”

“I am a trained psychologist.” The stranger admitted with a dip of her chin and a swing of her dark hair. “I’m Kat Cornwell. Captain Drahl asked me to come down and check on you.”

“I’ll bet he did.” Amanda smirked and took a sip of her soda.

The meal was ridiculous. Fattening and greasy. Full of sugar, e numbers and _precisely_ what she needed. Calories and comfort food. It had been a shitty few days, she ached all over and she wasn’t unaware of the security personnel ‘blending in’ around the cafeteria to keep an eye on her.

Captain Drahl, not being born yesterday upon a freight transport of root vegetables, knew that something was hinky with this whole situation. He had ordered his security team to loiter around Amanda, known troublemaker that she was. She could hardly blame him. She’d post guards on her too until the more sensible personality of Sarek woke up from his treatment.

Amanda shoved thoughts of Sarek aside. It made her mind ache for him in a sensation that she was both unfamiliar and uncomfortable with. She had no desire to try and fill a void in her head that hadn’t existed until he’d put it there and she was trying to convince herself that it was better that she stayed away. She was going to have to make the break sooner or later anyway. Best to just get it over with.

“May I sit?” Kat Cornwell had an easy smile and Amanda’s lips quirked in return.

Contrary to popular belief, she did not _dislike_ therapists. She spent far too much time in therapy to disparage the profession. She disliked BAD therapists. 

“Sure. Get your own fries though.” Amanda scooped up a French fry, dunked it in sauce and shoved it in her mouth, chewing enthusiastically.

“I’ve already eaten. Can I call you Amanda?”

“Sure.” Amanda gulped more soda and waited patiently for the interrogation to begin.

Kat watched her for a long moment, meeting her gaze steadily. Calculating. She pressed her lips together and seemed to come to a decision.

“From your view, how did you come to be on the planet we found you on?”

“From my view?” Amanda succeeded in cramming a whole bite of the burger into her mouth. She listened as she chewed.

“There have been some…discrepancies in our orders. Things we can’t make sense of. We’re trying to figure out what’s going on and how it happened.”

“What kind of discrepancies?”

“Confusion in the chain of command.”

“ _Ouch_.” Amanda feigned sympathy. “That’s got to really addle you uniformed types.”

“It is making my day a little more stressful than it needs to be.” Kat nodded with that same easy smile.

Amanda wasn’t fooled. The woman was concerned, there was a whole lot going on behind the mask of that smile. Amanda might mock Starfleet every opportunity she got but she didn’t _actually_ think they were all morons.

Statistically speaking there had to be a bright one in there somewhere.

“Confusion in the chain of command…” Amanda sat back in her chair, running her tongue over her teeth.

She took a breather from shovelling food into her mouth and considered what she knew. It was a small leap but she was going to take it.

“Did Command, by any chance, call you guys a few hours ago and ask you what the hell you were doing out here?”

Kat blinked a little too quickly. Attempting to mask her surprise.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Amanda sat forward, resting her elbows on the table and sipping from her sugary soda again. She pointed at Kat with the straw in her cup. “You got a distress call from HQ. Bad situation all round. Unknown invaders, came in, shot up the place, made off with the Ambassador and one of the Press Corps.”

Kat’s head tilted a little, saying nothing, probably under orders not to but she hadn’t disagreed.

“So the _Arcadia_ –nice boat by the way- is dispatched to follow the warp trail of a species you’ve never scanned before. You’re all pissed because a bunch of people are dead and despite all your higher knowledge, y’all are out for blood. Locked and loaded.”

“We’re on an S and R.” Kat disagreed finally. “Search and Rescue. We weren’t looking to start any fights.”

“Yeah, but you were damn well going to finish one, right?” Amanda lifted an eyebrow and devoured another fry. “Not that I blame you. I was there. I saw it happen. I was pretty pissed too. Nobody deserves to die like that.”

Kat stilled, sitting forward in her chair.

“You _were_ there.”

“Just said as much.” Amanda lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “So you’re on your way out here, all but baying for blood, and HQ gets on the horn and says ‘guys, what’s the hurry, where you off to?’ Hmm?”

“Words to that effect.” Kat allowed.

“So, you or someone more captainish, tells the story. Under orders, going to get the Ambassador back. Godspeed and all that. Find out who came into our house and killed all our people.” Amanda took another bite of her burger and chewed a moment. Kat did not fill the silence but Amanda had not really expected her to. “Killed what people, says HQ?”

“Almost verbatim.”

“I’ve been doing this narrative thing for a long time.” Amanda winked. “And this is where the confusion comes in. You’re insisting that headquarters has been invaded, a whole bunch of people wound up dead, mucho property destruction. Maybe you mentioned one of them by name. You’ve got to know people there.”

“My roommate from the Academy.” Kat nodded. “I saw her body. What was left of it.”

“They get her on the video link to prove she was okay?”

“Yeah.” Kat nodded slowly.

“How’d that go down?”

“Not so well.” Kat quirked her lips in the understatement of the century and Amanda chuckled. She liked this woman.

“So now there’s a problem; who’s telling the truth? The HQ bathed in blood and destruction that dispatched you on Search and Rescue or the HQ that’s insisting nothing of the sort happened and you better throw anchors and pull a three point turn?”

“That is the much debated subject. Any insights?”

“Quite a few.” Amanda smirked. “The simplest explanation being…they’re both right.”

“Really?”

“Other explanations involve math I can’t even pronounce.” Amanda told her mournfully and Kat managed another smile. She sobered after a moment.

“So you witnessed it? The attack?”

“It was carried out by a species called the Gorn. Reptilian, about three metres long, move kinda like if mercury learned to walk and had too many teeth.” Amanda ate more fries, despite having no stomach for the food. She knew that was the adrenaline and she needed to damn well eat. “They’re fast, smart and wicked. Their leader, queen, Hiresh was a bitch of the highest order. They were after me and they took Sarek because he was there with me. We happened to get stuck in a lift together when the power went out before the attack.”

“Then what happened?” Kat prompted gently.

“We tried to escape.” Amanda smirked wryly. “That obviously didn’t work. They caught us before we could even get out of the building. Killed a lot of people along the way. Knocked us out. Woke up in time to see the ship going to warp leaving Earth’s orbit.”

Amanda returned her attention to her food and ate some more. Kat didn’t push. Just let her collect herself. Amanda did hope she was using something to record this or one of the security guys was. She knew that she was going to have to repeat herself but she hoped to keep it to a minimum.

“After that, we found ourselves in the hospitality of the Gorn. They attempted…they knew that I had been on the planet before. I had visited with Amnesty Interstellar, I believe you know of them.”

“We offer support when we can.”

“Hmm, I’ve yet to see that but whatever you tell yourself.” Amanda smiled tightly. “The Gorn wanted to know what I had seen. When I had run into them on the planet they had attacked a settlement there. During my efforts to escape I ran through the maze you found us in. It knocks out instruments and messes with the Gorn’s heads. They needed a guide to get to what was in the middle.”

“And they…persuaded you?” Kat offered.

“They stuck me in a tank and drowned me. Repeatedly.” Amanda’s voice was flat and she was far from unaffected from her ordeal but she was numb right now so she could talk about it. She’d break down later but she could talk about it _now_. “It’s a torture to them because the liquid I was drowned in is very cold. The Gorn can’t stand the cold. They didn’t realise that being a mammal, I would have a better tolerance for it. It was when I recovered from that…that was when their tactics changed a little. Gorn females, their queens, have a higher tolerance for the extremes of temperatures. Nothing like the tolerance that humans do, but still more than the males. My recovery marked me as an equal to their leader.”

“Hiresh?” Kat nodded. “Head Bitch in Charge.”

“A lizard after my own heart.” Amanda smirked and then looked sideways at her soda. “Literally at some points.”

“She sounds charming.”

“She’d have made a wonderful handbag.” Amanda finished the last of her fries. “Still, she was the one that had seen me on the planet on the first place. She insisted that I take her and her…party back to the labyrinth. Take her to what was in it.”

“And what was in it?”

“You know I didn’t know until I got there the second time?” Amanda noticed for the first time, mentally reviewing all that she had said to Sarek about the labyrinth and what lay within it. “I knew there was something there and I was fiercely protective of it. I didn’t want the Gorn to harm it. I was convinced due to their earlier actions that they were going to kill it…even if I wasn’t fully cognisant of what _it_ was.”

“Some sort of mental compulsion.” Kat folded her arms onto the table, musing aloud. “It got into your head. Made you protective of it.”

“This happen a lot to Fleeters?”

“More than we’d like. Every third Tuesday or so.”

“It’s a fucking bitch. I’m not a fan.”

“Neither. Am. I.” Kat agreed fervently.

“I suppose you’re the one that puts people back together afterward, huh?”

“They put themselves back together. I just help however I can.” Kat nodded to Amanda.

“Yeah.” Amanda inhaled deeply. “So, I was a red hot mess. Got the crap kicked out of me. Was beat to hell and unconscious and Sarek –Ambassador Sarek- bargained for me to be healed.”

“Bargained with what?”

“Knowledge he didn’t have. The man can bluff. Do not play poker with him.” Amanda sliced her hand through the air to underscore her point. Kat smiled. “Idiot carried me through the jungle straight towards the labyrinth, even though he had no idea where it really was or what was in there. I was unconscious for most of that bit so you’ll have to ask him to confirm when he wakes up.”

“Doctor Hayes says that should be within a few hours. The surgery to repair his foot went well and the antibiotics and analgesics are working on his fever and infection. Prognosis is good.”

Amanda’s breathing hitched without her permission and she had to exhale slowly, looking out across the cafeteria, focussing on not letting stupid tears of relief fall.

Where was Sarek’s control when she needed it?

Oh yeah, unconscious with the rest of him.

“After that, uh,” Amanda coughed and cleared her rough throat, Kat made no comment, “Hiresh shot Ambassador Sarek. She didn’t want us both able to run and navigate the labyrinth. She was under the impression that Sarek and I…were together. That I was attached to him as she was to one of her males.”

“Weren’t you?” Kat asked and then blinked, seemingly surprised at that. “Apologies. Ignore that.”

“Was planning on it.” Amanda drank more soda, slurping obnoxiously at the dregs of syrup around the ice cubes. She set the cup down with a pop. “The labyrinth was a nest. For a life form we’ve never seen before. A being that could eat energy…as well as people. It hatched when we got there, it had been waiting for me to bring it…food.”

“Is that when you recognised it for what it was?”

“Well, I didn’t _recognise_ it but I knew that it was a life form and that it had been in my head and it had tricked me. I knew it was using me to bring others to it to eat.” Amanda inhaled sharply and moved on. “Anyway, when it hatched, I think it viewed me as…a friend? It wouldn’t eat me. When I wouldn’t let it eat everyone else it called on its parents and they…came from wherever it is they live. I think another dimension.”

Kat just blinked at her languidly.

“Again, kinda normal for ‘Fleet?”

“Nothing’s normal in ‘Fleet.” Kat drawled. “You can get used to anything though. Extra-dimensional beings. Interesting.”

“I’d have used a different word, but sure. Anyway, the parents turned up, there was a brief conversation and they decided that they owed me, us, Sarek and I.”

“They were under the impression that the Ambassador and yourself were bonded also?”

Amanda shot her a look but she didn’t back down this time. Amanda heaved a breath and shrugged.

“We were physically close. I was holding him up and we were a pair of humanoids. It was an assumption.”

“Hmm. They owed you?” Kat changed the subject.

“Apparently. We were trying to convince them not to eat all the Gorn because…because that’s not right and –uh- the dragon asked if we would prefer it if there had been less death. Sarek said something about he’d have preferred minimal harm? I think. Anyway, it did something and the world kind of…tilted.” Amanda shrugged, unsure how else to describe the non-event that had somehow fundamentally shifted her universe. “It said it had rewritten a small portion of time. To minimise the harm?”

“Dragon.”

“Hmm?” Amanda looked up from fiddling with her straw.

“You said dragon. That’s what you called the extra-dimensional life form.”

“Oh. Yeah. They looked like Asian dragons. You know, the slinky ones with the bird feet? Harbingers of storms.”

“I’ve seen pictures.” Kat nodded, considering what she had been told. “So you think this being…is the cause of the confusion back at Headquarters?”

“An educated guess, but your reactions kinda backed it up.” Amanda admitted. “They gave off a sense of…unimaginable power. They didn’t obey the laws of our universe in any great way, too big , too fast, too floaty…maybe they could have done it.”

Kat pondered that a moment and Amanda poked at the melting ice cubes in her drink with the straw. She frowned and lifted her head.

“What happened from Headquarter’s perspective?”

“You and the Ambassador were trapped in the lift together, that much was true. Security footage showed you both sitting on the floor, apparently having some sort of discussion and then the footage was interrupted. When it was regained, you were no longer there.”

Amanda blinked.

“And?” She prompted.

“And nothing.” Kat shrugged. “No damage, no invasion, no Gorn, no casualties or fatalities. The only thing that was left behind was your coat and shirt.”

“My coat lived!” Amanda brightened. “Best news I’ve had all day.”

“Right.” Kat looked a little nonplussed by that but was distracted when one of the security personnel responded to a chirp from his communicator. She watched as he listened and then rose to his feet to approach.

He bent to say something in Kat’s ear, low enough that Amanda couldn’t hear. The message was lengthier than Amanda expected and Kat frowned at what she heard. She leaned back, gazing up at the young man with a frown.

“You’re sure?”

“Yes, ma’am. That’s what I was told.”

“Report.” Kat waved at Amanda who was a little baffled when the security guard turned to her and all but clicked his heels together when he came to attention.

“Ma’am, we’ve been headed out of the solar system we found you in, scanning as we go and we came across a planet on the other side of the star. On closer inspection, it was revealed to be M Class with a population of life forms. Scans indicate reptilian in nature.”

“Well, I’d recommend avoiding them if at all possible.” Amanda threaded her arms across her chest, wondering where this was going.

“Yes, ma’am. As per General Order One, we’re giving the planet a wide berth.”

“General Order…?” Amanda frowned. She knew what that order was. “That only applies to pre-warp…?” She trailed off looking at Kat. Kat watched her right back.

“Yes, ma’am.” The security guard nodded again. “Pre-warp civilisations. Starfleet is forbidden to interfere. The life forms appear to be post-industrial but pre-warp. They have orbiting satellites and rudimentary sensors but nothing more.”

Amanda blinked. Absorbing that. It took her a moment to realise that she was supposed to say something to the boy.

“Thank you?”

“You’re welcome ma’am.” He nodded sharply and turned to Kat. “Ma’am?”

“As you were.” Kat dismissed him and looked back to Amanda. “We followed a warp trail here. It was messy and noisy, pollutants everywhere, but it _was_ a warp trail. Scans on entering the system indicated that this area of space was heavily travelled by ships of similar propulsion. The planet the ensign refers to was the epicentre of those trails. We thought it the homeworld of your captors. If we hadn’t been able to find you on the planet then we’d have gone there and started negotiations with the local government.”

“Sounds like Starfleet.” Amanda agreed.

“The warp trails are gone. Like they never were. We can’t even locate the one that led us here.” Kat sat forward and looked Amanda in the eye. “Rewrote a _small_ portion of time?”

“Well…I guess that’s relative.” Amanda frowned. Thinking it over and just…her mind was blown. “I think we need to get a closer look at that planet.”

“I’m inclined to agree but there is no ‘we’. _You_ are to go back to medical now that you’ve eaten.”

“Oh, come _on_.” Amanda sat back with a thud. “I’m fine!”

“Exactly. I sat down here to talk to you, you had a black eye a bruised lip and both your eyes were more blood than not.”

“Minor wounds.” Amanda shrugged.

She’d taken the minimal medical treatment required before escaping and begging for a shower and lunch before she became unreasonable about the whole affair. She’d been fitted with monitors and let loose with her security entourage to the showers and then the cafeteria. She’d made some vague promise of going back but had no intention of standing in a room with an unconscious Sarek because she didn’t know what she’d do when confronted with him in need of comfort. 

“Yes. Minor wounds that are gone now. Healed completely.” Kat stood, waving the security team closer. “Whatever the Ambassador bargained for to treat you, it did more than was expected. The doctors would like a word with you.”

Amanda let loose a slow breath and glanced at the large and musclebound types looming around her. Even Kat was considerably taller than she and probably could have taken her if she’d been of a mind to.

“Can you _really_ make me go back to sickbay if I don’t want to go?” Amanda asked.

“On a Starfleet ship? You bet your ass.” Kat stared down at her for a long moment with hard eyes, deciding if she’d been lied to. She gave after a moment. “Though if you’d really rather not be there, we can set you up in some guest quarters and have a nurse come by to take some samples. We just want to make sure you’re alright.”

Amanda coughed a laugh. _Alright_. She was about as far from alright as she’d ever been in her life and she was including the time the Gorn had shot her with a bolt gun in the gut. She pressed her lips together and hummed. Guest quarters and getting stabbed by a nurse or sickbay and getting heckled by doctors?

No contest.

“Do you have a room with a view?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun times with some of the characters from Discovery! I also included Commodore (though not yet commodore) of Yorktown Paris.
> 
> Paris, Georgiou and Cornwell are all younger than Amanda. She's 33, Kat is late twenties and Paris and Georgiou are mid twenties. 
> 
> Sarek will be back in the next chapter, but I did need to explain what had been going on outside his and Amanda's bubble of terror.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Sarek is happening to the poor unfortunate 'Fleeters, Kat Cornwell earns her paycheque and then some and Amanda has time to process some things about this new bond she has with Sarek.

**Chapter 15 – Certain Distance Requirements**

**_Medical Bay, Aboard the_ USS Arcadia…**

Sarek inhaled deeply, eyes flashing open. He sat up in one move and looked around at his new surroundings.

Medical bay. Likely aboard a starship. Federation judging by the décor. Well, at least Starfleet had managed to find them even if it had been much later than would have been ideal.

Amanda was nowhere in sight. Sarek repressed a frown, the machine monitoring his vitals gave a spike of activity and he glanced at it as if that might silence it. When that didn’t work, he resorted to breathing deeply and settling himself. A reactionary manner would gain him little. He must think of this logically.

If he had been rescued and brought aboard a starship then it was likely that Amanda would have been too.

Just because he could neither see her nor gain any great sense of her mentally was no cause for alarm.

Unless the lack of her mental presence was due to her succumbing to dehydration, psychosomatic illness or some other human frailty that concerned him greatly.

Either way, Sarek wasn’t going to gain any answers here.

He turned his attention to his own body as almost an afterthought. He did need it to get him from where he was to where Amanda was, after all.

He tossed aside the blanket covering his lower body and found that he wore fresh clean hospital clothing of a loose shirt tied at one hip and light trousers to match. The trousers had uneven legs as one had been rolled up so as to not interfere with the polymer cage moulded around his foot to keep it immobile whilst the osteopathic regenerations worked.

Sarek mulled that over. He did not wish to undo any repair done to his body as that would be impolite to the medical staff in the least…but he could not remain here.

The lights of the medical bay were dimmed and he supposed it must be the sleeping watch for the majority of the crew aboard ship. Humans did put a premium on maintaining their circadian rhythms even in space as it aided their productivity. If there was a medical professional present within the ward, Sarek could neither see nor hear them.

Best to look after himself then. Sleep was important to humans.

Sarek shifted along to the edge of the bed and lifted the padd secured to the end of the frame. He accessed his file and glanced through it. He was hardly a medical professional but the indicator of his condition at the top of the page was a yellow shading into green with the word ‘STABLE’ superimposed over the top. Humans also liked to colour code and he reminded himself that green was a positive colour for them as opposed to the red of their own blood colour. He scrolled through the notes kept on him and noted the medications he had been given and the annotations by various doctors and nurses.

No sign of continued infection, bones in his foot repaired and reset, the cast would need to remain on for at least thirty six hours but he should make a full recovery with some physiotherapy to aid that.

Optimal. That meant there was no need for him to stay in the medical wing since ‘rest’ seemed to be the primary treatment prescribed.

Sarek reasoned to himself that he would rest much easier once he had ascertained that Amanda was safe and well. Since the humans were mostly sleeping now, he should see about that himself. She should not be too difficult to locate. Once he had found her. He would rest.

Sarek levered himself off the bed and carefully put his weight onto his injured foot. A dull throb of discomfort informed him that he should keep the bulk of his weight from it and he resolved to limp if he had to. There were walls to use for support. He would manage.

With that in mind, Sarek made his escape.

**_The Cafeteria…_ **

“Sounds like a hell of a day, darlin’.”

“You’re telling me.” Kat raised an eyebrow and drank deeply of her coffee. She was on her second shift of the day.

They were in high orbit around what was suspected to be the Gorn homeworld, far beyond the range of their satellites and hiding in the shadow of the planet’s largest moon to just be on the safe side. There were some shenanigans due to conflicting witness statements on the technological advancement of the species in question and much debate as to how curious they should get.

She had been on hour four of her second shift when her captain had none too subtly demand that she put tools down for at least a couple of hours and do something else. Take her mind off their problems for a bit as they would still be there in the morning. So, she did what she usually did to unwind and called Gabriel.

She hadn’t been able to go into much detail, the mission was classified but she’d been able to give him the broad strokes and some details that weren’t involved with what was shaping up to be some sort of diabolical temporal snafu. It was common knowledge that the Vulcan Ambassador to Earth had been missing for nearly three Earth days now, after all.

“How they doin’? The Ambassador and the reporter?” Gabriel was tired, he was supposed to be sleeping. His sharp features softened by fatigue and his dark hair was adorably mussed from where she had woken him but he was propped on his folded arms on his bed, as close to his padd as he could get because he’d always wake up for her.

He really was cute sometimes.

“Ambassador’s in recovery in the sickbay. CMO says he should wake up fine. We caught the infection in time and his fever broke not long after his foot was fixed. Remind me not to mess with Vulcans, he was walking around with a metal pole in his foot for over a day.”

“They’re the stoic sort, alright.” Gabriel smiled at her sleepily and Kat smiled in return, sipping more coffee.

“The reporter, Grayson, she’s…something else. Whip smart, funny, knows how to apply herself, she’d make a good Captain if she didn’t hate the uniform I suppose…but she’s seen a lot. It’s in her eyes. You can…feel it.”

“My daddy called that the ‘thousand yard stare’. You said she was a war correspondent. She’s gotta see a lot of things that most civilians don’t.”

“Civilian is _not_ a term I would apply to Amanda Grayson.”

“Ya like her.” Gabriel grinned.

“You know, I do. She’s been through a lot but she’s pretty ‘keep calm and carry on’ about it all. She was surprisingly open about a lot of things for a reporter. Usually talking to one of the Press Corps is like pulling teeth but she seemed willing to compare notes.”

“You think she gave as much as she got?”

“Not a chance. Woman’s got a mind like a steel trap and there are _huge_ holes in her narrative. She’s definitely not told me everything.” Kat frowned, mulling that over.

“Well, you said yourself, she’s been through a lot. It’s easy to miss out on even obvious details when you’ve had your cage rattled.” Gabriel scrubbed a hand through his hair making it stick up even more than it usually did.

“Maybe I should give her the benefit of the doubt.” Kat allowed. She thought back to the haunted look that would flash deep in Amanda Grayson’s eyes and made a mental note to keep an eye on the woman. Perhaps recommend a colleague or two that might help with the processing of it all.

Kat was dimly aware of the doors to the cafeteria hissing open behind her. She paid it no real mind, probably someone on a break in gamma shift, until Gabriel straightened on his side of the video link and seemed suddenly much more awake.

“Uh…darlin’? Didn’t you say the Ambassador was unconscious?”

“Yeah. Heavy duty sedation to…” Kat trailed off and then twisted to follow Gabriel’s finger when he pointed over her shoulder. “Shit. Gotta go.”

“Save the universe, darlin’.” Gabriel grinned at her all white teeth and Southern charm.

“One errant diplomat at a time.” Kat winked at him and cut the connection, setting her padd down on the table.

She stood and straightened her uniform jacket with a decisive tug. She drained the rest of her coffee to fortify herself and then started across the room to where the Vulcan Ambassador seemed to be absorbed in the workings of one of the food replicators.

Kat approached him, letting her boots clip on the floor so he certainly heard her coming. She had no idea how he was coping with the last few days and would rather not trigger any instincts he might not be able to control with all the drugs flooding his system.

He was tall, very lean and his standard Vulcan haircut was a little less than its usually perfect coif. He stood with his back to her, weight on his good leg, his grey polymer cast caged about his injured foot and held off the floor. He had one hand braced against the wall and the other was scrolling through the options of the menu.

“Ambassador?” Kat came to a halt well out of arm’s reach. “Can I help you?”

“Perhaps.” He did not turn to look at her and instead pushed one of the options on the menu with a firm stab of his finger.

Kat waited through the thrum of the replicator materialising whatever it was he’d asked for and the door parted once the light had dimmed.

Kat raised a single eyebrow when the Ambassador lifted a litre bottle of water from inside the replicator. He balanced on one foot easily enough, uncapping the bottle and proceeded to drink it.

All of it.

He pushed the bottle back into the replicator once it was empty and hit the recycle option, then turned back to the menu, scrolling through the many options available.

Kat cleared her throat and decided to try again. She stepped a little closer but was still sure to respect the metre radius that most Vulcans preferred for personal space.

“You want…cake?” Kat glanced at the options he was scrolling through with almost impatient sweeps of his fingers across the screen.

“Ice cream cake.”

“Would you like help?” Kat offered again, hands still folded behind her back. “You’re in the wrong section of the menu, is all.”

“Please.” Sarek straightened up and –oh- he really was tall. He hopped back a step and waved her towards the replicator.

Kat decided to make no comment about how that would leave them standing pretty close to one another and did as she had offered. She tapped through the various menu options until she found the frozen desserts and the cakes he wanted.

“Which flavour?”

The Ambassador looked at her for a long and unblinking moment. Kat thought briefly about trying to contact the medics but then he shook his head minutely and seemed to tune back in.

“I do not know. Is there an option for…a selection?”

“We could replicate a bunch?”

“If a…’bunch’ has a variety of flavours then this would be acceptable. Please.” The Ambassador nodded, still supporting himself against the wall and Kat decided it was not hers to ask why.

It took a couple of moments fiddling with the replicator but she managed to program it to give her a slice of eight flavours to make up a whole cake and a platter to carry it all on. It materialised in the cupboard with a flare of light and Kat lifted it out for him. She turned to him and wondered how best to herd him where he was supposed to be.

“I can carry it back to Medical for you?”

“No.” Sarek’s brow lowered minutely in what would have been a frown on a human.

“Oh-kay. Do you want to take a seat here?” Amanda nodded her head to the nearest cafeteria table.

“No.” Sarek’s frown became a little more pronounced and he turned awkwardly to look back at the doors he had shambled through a moment ago. He twisted to look back at Kat. His eyes dropped to the rank bar on her collar. “You are a lieutenant commander. You know where Amanda Grayson is.”

“Yes. I do. She’s in guest quarters right now. I imagine she’s asleep.” Kat tried to hint.

The Ambassador’s gaze took on a faraway look for a moment and he hummed deep in his throat.

“Her dreams shall not be favourable. I do not wish her to be harmed by them. We will go to her now.”

Kat opened her mouth to protest but he was already turning away and hopping for the door a lot faster than she had expected of him.

“Of course, Ambassador.” She murmured and followed after him.

Probably best to keep an eye on him.

**_Guest Quarters…_ **

Amanda woke with a full body jolt, hands lifted to ward of…she didn’t know what. Her breathing came in ragged pants, she felt cold and shivery all over. Something to do with the sweat slicking her skin most likely, and she sat up with a groan.

Well, nightmares of drowning were hardly unexpected. It was going to take a little while to figure out how to…manage all of that.

Amanda sighed, looping her arms around her knees and burying a hand in her hair. She felt wrung out and exhausted. A glance at the clock told her she’d slept for several hours but it was as if her head had barely touched the pillow before she’d been awoken again.

“Water.” Amanda rasped to herself and cast aside the sheets on her bed. Water and a shower.

She poured a generous glass for herself from the pitcher that had been given to her with her dinner and drank most of it on the way to the bathroom. It was mere minutes to strip off her damp nightclothes and step into the cubicle. Just a sonic shower but it helped to make her feel cleaner and dry her off.

Leaving the bathroom, she sourced a new set of clothes to put on, opting for a set of sweats the quartermaster had given her. Black with white lettering ‘CADIA’ emblazoned on the front of the shirt and down the leg of the pants. She thought it a bit silly, how many people forgot which damn ship they were serving on, but whatever.

Amanda was onto her second glass of water, listening to her heart slow down from its staccato gallop. She focussed on breathing for a moment and attempted to ignore the ache that pounded in her head and gaped in her chest that had Sarek’s name all over it.

She thought about resenting him for it but couldn’t really. She had been a willing participant and he had done it so that she might survive a situation that she otherwise wouldn’t have. There was little doubt in her mind had it not been for Sarek that she would have died many times over in the hands of the Gorn. She owed him her life and…and perhaps he owned other pieces of her already.

Amanda was thankfully drawn from further introspection by a chime at the door. She glanced at the clock again, confirming that it was the middle of the night and bolted out of her chair when she could think of no _good_ reason to knock on her door at this hour.

Amanda palmed the controls to the door, opening it for whoever was on the other side and her breathing hitched.

“Amanda.” Sarek propelled himself into the room with his hands braced on either side of the door frame and a single hopping stride.

Amanda caught him before he could fall, her arms sliding around his waist to hold him up. She sucked in a breath when his hands cupped her face and his mind sidled up against hers, brushing warmly against her. She could _feel_ that he had missed her as much as she did him.

Amanda let loose a shivering breath and surrendered, letting him in. his head dipped towards hers, their foreheads resting together. Her eyes closed for a long moment, revelling in his closeness and she only dragged herself from it when she remembered she had seen someone else with him.

Sarek made a displeased sound when she pulled away from him a little and looked beyond his shoulder.

Kat Cornwell stood just outside the still open doorway, a platter of…cake? In her hands and a sudden interest in whatever was not happening down the corridor.

“Kat.” Amanda greeted her. “You brought cake.”

“Well, really I just brought the Ambassador. He insisted on the cake.” Kat risked a look at the couple very much wrapped up in one another.

She guessed not _all_ Vulcans had a strict personal space policy.

“Anaesthesia?” Amanda jerked her chin at Sarek who had a coil of her hair wrapped around one finger and appeared to be measuring the shine of it. 

“Yeah. He’s a little loopy. Seemed best to let him see you as he was…pretty insistent.”

“That and you kinda loose diplomatic points for darting Ambassadors, huh?”

“The diplomatic corps are _so_ fussy that way.” Kat made a production of rolling her eyes. She stepped into the room and to the nearest table here. “I can leave this and…the Ambassador here?”

“Yeah.” Amanda dipped her chin in a nod. Her smile was more self-deprecating than anything else. She’d only been fooling herself it would seem. I’ll look after him. You’ll tell the doctors where he is?”

“We shall look after one another, beloved.” Sarek announced and Amanda turned to blink up at him. “This is the meaning of your name. Amanda is Beloved. I checked. _Kochanek_ means lover. I checked this also.”

Amanda was at a loss for a moment and looked at Kat with a bemused smile.

“Hey, it’s not like I could have physically dragged him away from the computer terminal. I was carrying cake.” Kat defended herself. “Besides, it’s cute you have pet names for each other.”

“Go away from me now.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Kat smirked and turned on her heel, leaving the rooms and letting the doors swish shut behind her.

Amanda looked up at Sarek whose hands were now entirely buried in her hair and must be reducing it to the state of a bird’s nest. Her mouth twisted at that a little but she had access to brushes now so it was fixable. She watched him for a moment, measuring his actions and the texture of his thoughts meandering amongst hers.

“You’re stoned out of your gourd right now, aren’t you?” She smiled but it was fond and he nodded easily enough.

“I am not entirely certain of the metaphor but I believe it to be apt.” His hands cupped her face again, his thumbs stroking over the high sweep of her cheekbones and he looked down into her eyes for a long moment. He seemed suddenly very lucid. “I am at peace to be in your presence once more.”

“Me too.” Amanda admitted quietly. “Shall we eat some cake before it melts?”

“Yes.” He nodded firmly. “I am hungry.”

“Just as well you brought a whole one then, huh?”

“Vulcans are known for their forethought and planning.” Sarek announced, allowing himself to be steered towards the bed to sit.

“Sure they are, honey. We’ll eat some of this and then you can sleep it off, okay?” Amanda left him to gather up the cake and the utensils that Kat must have thought to bring with it.

“May I kiss you?” Sarek’s hands spanned her waist when she was close enough once more and Amanda blinked at that.

“If you still want to when you’re sober.” Amanda allowed after a moment. She turned the cake so the chocolate flavour was far away from him. “Have some cake.”

“I wanted to before I was intoxicated though the timing was not ideal.” Sarek accepted the spoon from her and dug heartily into the nearest slice to him. Vanilla, he noted internally. “I brought the cake to gain your favour.”

“I think you had it already.” Amanda sipped some cake from her own spoon and Sarek was momentarily distracted by the scent of chocolate mixing with her own. His pupils dilated at the intoxicating combination and he shook himself.

“I will stay here with you. Keep you from having ill dreams.” He frowned a little. Something had been missing from that. “Please?”

Amanda watched him for a long moment, her eyes bright and her lower lip trembled a little as she smiled.

“I’d like that.” Her voice was rough and Sarek chose to eat more cake in the hope that she would mirror him. Perhaps the cooled cream would soothe her throat.

Still, her thoughts grew becalmed with proximity to his and that was all he wanted. The rest could wait.

**_The Next Morning…_ **

Amanda woke as the moon rose outside the window of her rooms. Her eyes fluttered, blearily opening and she found herself…in an odd position.

She lay diagonally across the bed, her head over the side to rest on Sarek’s shoulder as he sat at the side of the bed on the floor. Her arm curled around his shoulder and neck and his own head tilted back to be cushioned on her arm. They were nearly cheek to cheek and a peering glance confirmed that his eyes were closed and he was either in a deep state of sleep or meditation.

Amanda looked up at the curve of the moon dominating the view from her guest quarters and felt her lips quirk in a smile. She supposed the sandy looking planet in the background was the Gorn homeworld but she didn't care for that right now. The moon itself was beautiful. Marbled purples swirled over the surface and it must have had some sort of atmosphere as she could see golden clouds swirling into storm formations as she watched. Lightning sparked and glittered, visible even from so far away and it was altogether quite beautiful.

"Weather formations." Sarek's eyes opened. "You find them aesthetically pleasing?"

"Why the tone? You find my face aesthetically pleasing and that's an accident of genetics."

"Your aesthetics are the least interesting thing about you." Sarek spoke in a low voice, breathing deeply. "They pale in comparison to your katra."

Amanda frowned a little. She didn't know that word. He answered her question before she could voice it aloud.

"Humans know the katra as the soul. This is as close an analogy as I can think of."

"You think I have a beautiful soul?" Amanda raised a brow. She found that hard to believe.

"Beautiful is the wrong word." Sarek's hand rose, his fingers tangling with hers. She let her thumb trail over his knuckles. The scrapes there faded under dermal regeneration treatment. "Resonant. Your soul resonates with mine."

"Oh." Amanda's voice was small. "We don't really know one another, you know."

"A circumstance that can be easily remedied with time and effort on both our parts." His grip on her hand was gentle but firm.

"You sound all in, Sarek. That's complicated." Her head still rested on his shoulder. Her cheek warmed by the strength simmering under his skin. "I've no life or death circumstances to hide behind now but...I'm human and you're not."

"Does my species bother you?" He half turned to see her out of the corner of his eye. "Is it the ears?"

"Far from it. The hair. Can't stand it."

She felt his amusement flare against her senses like a fire with a fresh log thrown on. She understood what he meant by resonant. She'd felt his absence keenly when he had been sedated and they had been apart.

Still, that was no basis for...whatever it was he wanted from her.

"Our lifespans differ." She said gently. "I'll live a fraction of your years. I'll never be able to fully reciprocate this bond that you've forged between us. I'm not kind or patient or even polite. I make my living by being crude and demanding. We met because I let an alien into my head and it turned me into its ally without me ever being aware of it. I'm not a Vulcan princess. I'm not suited to you."

"It is true that there are many differences between us. I am cool and distant emotionally compared to those that you have bonded with in the past. My work is demanding and family matters require attention often. I have a son who is not in the best of health from a previous lifemate. I do not understand humans anywhere near as well as you seem to understand Vulcans and I am not unaware that this relationship would not belong solely to us should we attempt it. I am a public figure and...I would be the first to take a human wife."

"That's what you want from me? Already?"

"We are bonded. Your thoughts are with mine. I...I _recognise_ you." Sarek twisted to look at her fully though he was careful not to dislodge her from her cushion on his shoulder. "A ceremony, at this juncture, is merely that. Ceremony."

"Oh."

"You will recall that I informed you this would be more intimate than a marriage."

"Yeah. I remember." Amanda pushed herself up on her elbow, nodding when she sensed his worry that she had felt lied to by him. She squeezed his hand with hers. "I know. You told me. I just...forgot."

He lifted a brow at her.

"In my defence, there was a lot going on at the time."

"Indeed."

"Will...other Vulcans know? Is it frowned upon to just...elope like that?"

"Vulcans do not frown."

"Okay, first of all; bullshit, secondly, you know what I mean." Amanda sat up on the bed and Sarek made a low noise in his throat, disapproval at her distance from him.

"Vulcans outside of my family bond will not be able to sense such things without touching either of us." Sarek pushed to his feet, wobbled a little with his cast and then sat on the space Amanda patted beside her. "And no Vulcan would touch you unless they had to."

"Fair. I'll endeavour not to get stuck in any lifts with strangers in the near future." Amanda picked at the sheet on the bed. She inhaled deeply. She was still...uneasy about all this.

"What else troubles you?"

"Vulcans don't like to touch." She looked up at him, sucking her lower lip between her teeth before releasing it. "I feel like...I'd be asking for something you wouldn't normally give. That can sometimes happen for humans. An asexual human might marry one that is not and the human that has physical sexual appetites satisfies them in other ways. Some people do have open marriages I just don't see myself as being one of them. It would feel unfair to you. Not to mention that I think your folks might disapprove."

"I would disapprove. I am far from asexual. I would not wish to see you so dissatisfied. That in turn, I think, would dissatisfy me." Sarek ducked his head a little so that she would meet his eyes again. "Do you not desire me, physically?"

"It's not just about what I want!" Amanda rocked back from him, frustrated. "I don't want to be the primitive primate pawing at you when you're not all that into it!"

"Pawing does not sound appealing. I have heard of the human practice of...petting?"

"Where on _Earth_ did you hear that?!" Amanda bit back a laugh.

"On Earth." Sarek's mouth hooked in the slightest of smiles. His voice lowered into something closer to a growl than anything else. "I desire you, beloved. Physically, mentally, in all ways one being might cleave to another. You _are_ wanted. I await only your permission to prove as much."

"Oh." Amanda blinked at him, her eyes round and crystalline blue. 

Her pupils dilated and Sarek muscled down a thrum from deep in his throat that would be unseemly to voice presently.

"You did say that you wanted to kiss me."

"You responded that I should wait until I was sober. My head is clear. Faculties intact. My reasoning is fully functional."

"Any time you feel brave enough." Amanda snarked at him as a matter of course and realised she shouldn't have been surprised that he was simply waiting for his opportunity.

Sarek's hand tunnelled into her hair, cradling the back of her head in one large hand and he tugged her close, pulling her mouth to his. 

_Oh._

Amanda's hands lifted uncertainly when his mouth pressed to hers in the lightest brushing kiss. His lips were incredibly soft with a velvet texture that was so different to anything she had felt before. 

The contact was electrifying. Everything was just _more_. She realised that she had become used to the deeper intimacy afforded between them when they linked hands. She had the sudden notion that was how Vulcans kissed in greeting or out of affection. A brush of fingers and the fluid slide of his mind against hers. As comforting between bondmates as a buss on the cheek or a hug would be to a human.

Vulcan kisses, Amanda learned, were unlike human kisses.

Vulcan kisses were solely for seduction.

Sarek's tongue traced over her lips and she let him in with a thrill of anticipation she hadn't felt since...well, since ever. This was new and exciting and she was on fire for him and he'd barely even touched her. 

Amanda rocked up onto her knees, deepening the kiss with a tilt of her head. Her fingers speared into his hair, nails scraping his scalp and he thrummed a deep sound of approval at the feeling. His arm slid around her waist, tugging her closer and she was clambering into his lap before she remembered that this was supposed to be a test run.

Sarek's mind teased against hers, his thoughts heated, thrilling. He reached into her head and lit up parts of her brain that sent shivers down her spin and a quake low in her belly.

Amanda groaned into him, arms cinching around his neck and toppling him backward with her soft weight on his chest. Sarek went willingly. Pulling her over him, his hands roving over her body. Deft fingers found the hem of her shirt and slipped beneath. His touch was scorching to the skin of her lower back and she gasped into his mouth but could not stop kissing him.

He beckoned to her with his thoughts, inviting her into his mind and led her on a tour of his psyche's erogenous zones. Amanda learned how to brush against a thought here, how to slide the surface of her self over his in such a way as to make his chest rumble again. She learned that if she pressed her mind into his _just so_ then his nails curled against her skin as if he wished for claws to anchor her to him.

He'd lost his shirt at some point. Amanda suspected herself as the culprit but she couldn't bring herself to care. Sarek's tongue was stroking hers, his mind was hers to explore and his hips rolled up into the cradle of her own with a rather impressive shape of things to come.

Her shirt tore, she felt it gape away from her back with a soft ripping sound of shredded fabric. His hands were molten on her skin. His nails singing over her spine, waking nerve endings that she hadn't realised could be brought into such play and his other hand spanned her lower back, crushing her to him as his hips jostled up. All hardness to her soft heat.

Amanda hummed into him, her hips rolling down against him. She was wet and open and _ready_ and he'd only kissed her. She could feel the iron bar of his cock, fully engorged in his trousers, and she ground herself against him. Teasing them both through the layers they still wore.

Sarek growled. An actual growl. Like a lion. He tugged at her shirt, breaking the kiss an instant to get it out of his way and then he purred with a shockingly loud rumble when her naked chest could slide against his. His hands delved into her hair once more and he kissed her like it was the only thing that had ever mattered to him.

"Ambassador, are you oh- -oh-HO-KAY THEN!"

Amanda yelped in surprise when Sarek suddenly flipped her, flattening her to the mattress. He lifted his head, lips pulled back from his teeth and a thunderous growl escaped from him before he could swallow it. 

Vulcan control or not. It would seem he did not appear to enjoy being interrupted.

Amanda twisted, rocking her head back to get an upside down view of the room in time to see Kat pushing at some poor poleaxed medical professional.

"Alright, show's over. They're obviously still both alive so we can wait OUTSIDE."

"Hi, Kat." Amanda blinked when her voice came out a great deal throatier than she had intended.

"Hi, Amanda. You didn't answer the chime. Thought you were dead. Apologies. Invite us in when no longer occupied!" Kat called over her shoulder, bodily bullying the medic with her back out into the corridor.

The door hissed shut behind them and Amanda was left with Sarek still looming over her. She was breathing hard, as was he, but he made no move to let her up.

"Well, I guess that's our wake up call." Amanda let her hands span his chest though she couldn't help the flex her fingers gave against the planes of muscle there. He really was rather large. All over.

"She said 'when no longer occupied'." Sarek reminded her 

"Sarek." Amanda tilted her head at him. Did he really want to have sex with her when there were two Fleeters outside the door?

The door that probably wasn't sound proof.

He seemed to catch wind of her thoughts and let loose another feline grumble. 

She had to admit that the sounds delighted her. Even more so to know that he only employed them when in particular proximity to her. It was intoxicating to know that she could literally make him purr.

"Very well," he reversed off her, rising to his feet and tugged her gently upright, "though I shall need a moment to compose myself."

Amanda blew out a breath as she let her gaze track over him. He was stripped to the waist. His broad chest rising and falling with every deep breath. An olive flush high on his cheeks and over his sternum. Curling dark hair led on an interesting trail over defined abdominals to disappear beneath the waistband of trousers that were indecently low. Amanda bit her lip at the reminder of what she had been so happily up close and personal with just moments before.

She gusted out a sigh and nodded.

"You and me both."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone who thinks Sarek would not want to jump Amanda...what are you doing here?
> 
> No, in all seriousness, he wants to bond with his human. Humans are aggressively social, tactile and engage in recreational sex. It would be logical, then, for him to do all of those things to bond with her in her way since she let him go wandering about in her mindscape. 
> 
> That is his excuse and he is sticking to it, by Surak.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Sarek is non-demonstratively cranky as only Vulcans can be. 
> 
> Also in which Amanda is a lying liar who lies.

**Chapter 16 – Not Over Yet**

Sarek allowed himself to be escorted back to Sickbay even if he felt no particular need to return. He understood that the human doctors wished to be sure that he was fully recovering but he did not think the interruption a necessary one at such an early hour.

Particularly when he'd had other things to occupy him.

Sarek turned his head, assuring himself that Amanda trailed behind him still. She looked up, catching his gaze, and blinked one eye at him.

She gusted a laugh when he evidently had no idea what that meant.

The young doctor leading their group twisted at the sound, stared openly for a moment and turned back only when Lieutenant Commander Cornwell cleared her throat sharply at him.

Sarek glanced at Amanda to see how she had taken that particular interaction and found her either unaware or uncaring of the doctor's attention. She fell into step with Sarek, her usual pace slowed in order to accommodate his limp with his cast and dropped her hands into the pockets of her zipped sweatshirt.

She still wore the black clothing with white lettering that constituted casual wear for the crew of the Arcadia. Though she'd had to replicate a new tee shirt since he had damaged the first. Sarek was dressed similarly as there were no blueprints in the Computer's database to replicate Vulcan robes.

They passed the Mess Hall and Sarek noted that he had not seen Amanda eat since the few bites of cake she'd had the night before. She would be hungry soon.

"Will this visit take long?" Sarek asked the group at large and was unsurprised when it was Cornwell that answered him. The doctor could not seem to meet his gaze.

"I don't think so, Ambassador. Our CMO would only like to make sure that you're not likely to drop dead on our ship. If you could wait until we reach a Vulcan transport, that would be much appreciated."

"That would only be polite." Sarek inclined his head in a nod.

"I can have food brought, if you'd like?" Kat seemed to realise where his question had sprung from.

"We would."

"Would we?" Amanda joined the conversation. "What happened to Vulcans not needing as much food as humans do?"

"The food is for you."

"Oh." Amanda seemed surprised and Sarek could not fathom why. Was this not what bonded humans did? Did they not care for one another and facilitate each other's needs?

"How do you like your eggs?" Kat turned to Amanda with a smirk.

"You going to set breakfast for two on a spare biobed?" Amanda shot back.

"If it's required." Kat levelled a sideways glance at Sarek. "I've been ordered to fulfil any requests the Ambassador may have."

Sarek opened his mouth and Amanda spoke before he could.

"I'm sure we can wait until the Ambassador is given the all clear."

"Yeah. You might want a medical sign off." Kat still smiled but the reasoning escaped Sarek even if Amanda seemed to pick up on it and it drew a frown from her.

He was prevented from asking what had occurred by the doors to Sickbay swishing open to allow them inside. Sarek was herded towards the nearest available biobed. He remained silent until another doctor attempted to take Amanda to the far side of the room.

"I thought your injuries were repaired?" Sarek nearly bowled over the doctor that happened to be between him and Amanda when he turned to speak to her. The younger man danced out of his way but made no comment.

"Yeah. I'm fine. They're just oohing and aahing over whatever it was the Gorn treated me with."

"Why then are you being segregated from me?" Sarek glanced pointedly at the empty biobed beside his own.

"It's how humans work. A privacy thing."

Sarek's brow tightened as if he wanted to frown but he didn't let it appear. He nodded once and turned, allowing himself to be ushered up onto the biobed. He spoke when Lieutenant Commander Cornwell made to retreat to the doors.

"Lieutenant Commander."

"Sir." Cornwell turned on her heel, her hands clasped at her back.

"Are we in orbit around the Gorn homeworld?"

Kat glanced at the medics buzzing around the Ambassador but his gaze was steady. He apparently wanted to multitask.

"Yes, sir."

"Do you think that wise?" Sarek levelled a steady look when a doctor injected him with a hypospray but made no comment on it. "They are a war like race and may not take kindly to their space being invaded."

"Ah. Yes, sir. You were unconscious when this was discussed. The Gorn...may not be warp capable anymore."

"Clarify." Sarek demanded.

"Well, we followed a warp trail here to find you and Doctor Grayson. We came across several others of a similar make in this system before we arrived at the planet and then, well, they disappeared. Scans now indicate that the Gorn, if this is their planet, are a post-industrial but pre-warp society."

"How is this possible?"

"In laymen's terms, we've no idea." Cornwell shrugged her shoulders. "The Computer logged the warp signatures we tracked on the way into the system but there is no sign of them now. No trace at all. Not even the half-life of their decay."

"And the Gorn themselves?"

"We've been running intensive scans to attempt to ascertain if the life forms dominant to this planet are the Gorn. Only you or Doctor Grayson could hope to identify them though."

When Sarek continued to be confused Kat realised that he'd been left in the dark as to what she and Amanda had pieced together. Then again, the Ambassador and Amanda had seemed to find other ways to occupy their time other than conversation.

"As near as we can tell, the small portion of time that was rewritten by the life forms you and Doctor Grayson encountered on the planet extends to the Gorn homeworld...and Starfleet Headquarters back on Earth."

"Explain." Sarek listened intently even as adjustments were made to the polymer cast around his foot and lower leg.

Cornwell gave a brief overview of the conversation she and Amanda had held the day before. The way they had exchanged information and come to the conclusion that some sort of temporal incursion had occurred and they were still trying to identify the scope of it.

Sarek also learned from the discussion that Amanda had mentioned nothing of her third and final 'wish' nor the strengthening mental bond between herself and Sarek.

"In short," Cornwell concluded, "seems like you two are the only ones that remember the original timeline of events."

"It would seem so." Sarek murmured, considering. "If there was no evidence of where we had disappeared to in the new timeline, why then did the Arcadia continue on to the planet where we were found?"

"It was the only lead we had and everyone on this ship remembers something happened at Headquarters. We've been asking the crew and holding interviews and it seems like even that varies between members of our crew. Some remember your disappearance or abduction, others remember some sort of attack being reported and it seems like only the senior staff remember that it was a foothold situation. That you were forcibly taken by an invading force."

"Remarkable." Sarek considered it a moment further. "Those that remember the bloodier version, did they all visit Headquarters? Perhaps being in the building is key?"

"No. I was the only one to have been in the building itself when it was still washed with blood. I was on leave for the day it happened and came to help when the alarm was raised. I cut my leave short to get back to the _Arcadia_ in pursuit of your captors since we were the largest and closest ship." Cornwell shrugged her shoulders. "Captain Drahl never saw the carnage himself, but he saw video footage and he remembers that. The helm officers remember what trail they were told to look for but not precisely why they were following it."

"It would seem that only those essential for keeping the _Arcadia_ on course for our rescue knew more than others." Sarek mused. "Well, I am grateful that you continued on your journey despite evidence supporting your withdrawal."

"Search and Rescue is something of a specialty for the _Arcadia_. We've got the best sensors in the fleet."

"Still. Your arrival was fortuitous. I do not know how we might have escaped the planet otherwise. If the Gorn are now pre-warp then there would have been no shuttle for us to use to leave the planet."

"You're very welcome, Ambassador, but it was all in the line of duty."

"What we talking about?" Amanda reappeared at the end of the bed. She was...troubled.

"You are well?"

"Fighting fit." Amanda shrugged.

Sarek looked at her in a particularly heavy manner.

"I'm fine."

"You have insisted the same when sporting holes in your shoulder, hand and gut." Sarek reminded her.

"The gut shot was old." Amanda frowned, defending herself.

"Hrrn." Sarek was unimpressed.

"You were shot in the gut?!" Cornwell looked at Amanda sharply.

"Not recently!" Amanda lifted a hand. "A few weeks ago now. It was mostly healed before all this started. I guess my medical files weren't updated into the main database."

"Amnesty really needs to start logging their missions with Control."

"Yeah, they'll probably start doing that when you guys stop getting in their way." Amanda propped her elbows on the end of the bed and dropped her chin into her hands. "I hear there's a ship approaching."

"You hear?" Kat raised her brows.

"I hear lots of things." Amanda grinned.

"It's a Vulcan cruiser." Kat admitted after a moment. "Nothing to do with the Gorn."

"The Vulcan Science Expeditionary Force dispatched a vessel?" Sarek found that unlikely.

"No. Make no mistake we've been getting it in the ear for losing you but this has been a Starfleet mission to retrieve you. This cruiser came out of one of Vulcan's moons. R'moth?"

"Ah." Sarek's voice flattened.

"Someone you know?" Amanda asked innocently.

"The sister of my first wife. She governs the moon of R'moth. She would have the means to send a cruiser."

Amanda straightened up from the end of the bed.

"Your sister in-law came all the way out here to find you?"

"That is one of the more favourable options."

"Really?" Amanda drawled.

"She cares for my son. It is my hope that concern for my welfare has brought her here and not that of Sybok."

Kat blew out a breath at the charged moment between Sarek and Amanda. She couldn't pretend to understand what was going on between them. If they'd both been human she would have understood that they were lovers but Vulcans didn't really _do_ casual sex so Kat was at something of a loss.

That and their morning hadn't finished getting interesting.

"So is now a bad time to mention that a pre-warp society is sending a subspace communication and asking for Amanda by name?"

Kat was treated to heavy looks from both Amanda and the Ambassador and she nodded.

"That's fair."

**_The Bridge, Later…_ **

Amanda stepped out onto the bridge of the _Arcadia_ and let loose a low whistle at the panorama of it.

She had been on 'Fleet ships before, of course, though they had been in space dock or they were in the process of being requisitioned into museums. That being said, there was something altogether quite thrilling about being at the central hub of a living breathing starship. The crew barely glanced at her, absorbed in their various tasks, but the Captain turned in his very large chair and rose to his -quite frankly- gargantuan height.

"Doctor Grayson, good of you to join us." Captain Drahl crossed to her, extending one dark skinned hand which Amanda was happy to accept.

"Happy to be here, Captain. I understand I have a call waiting?"

"All in good time, Doctor. You're doing okay?"

Amanda fell into step with Drahl at his invitation, crossing the bridge with him. She looked up in surprise at the question.

"The Ambassador is fine, you needn't worry."

"I'm well aware that the Ambassador is five by five, I was asking after you." Drahl raised a silver eyebrow her way. "We were dispatched to rescue an ambassador and a Federation citizen. We were relieved to find you both alive and relatively unscathed."

"Paperwork for deaths in mission must be a bitch." Amanda drawled.

"Well. That too." Drahl winked at her and Amanda grinned.

"You're very charming but I know I don't have many fans in the 'Fleet. At the moment I just feel lucky that I haven't been airlocked."

"On the contrary, I like your articles." Drahl grinned. "They're up for popular debate in the Mess more often than not."

"A chilling reminder that I am well known." Amanda raised her eyebrows and Drahl laughed full throated and jolly.

"You hold us accountable. That can only be a good thing. You're also out in the field yourself. Not preaching behind the safety of a pulpit." Drahl waved to the comm officer. "This is Daisy."

"Ma'am." The young man, Daisy apparently, spun on his chair to nod to Amanda. "You studied communications?"

"Well, that's what they told me when they gave me the doctorate." Amanda smiled at him. He was about twelve. Bless.

"Indeed, ma'am." Daisy grinned. "We've been picking up a subspace signal from the planet. It seems to sound out an approximation of your name. We were wondering if you'd care to listen?"

"I only picked up a couple of words when I was with them." Amanda looked sideways at Drahl even as she accepted a spare earpiece from Daisy. "I believe most of them were four letter in variety and I was unconscious the rest of the time."

"Never hurts to get a second opinion." Drahl shrugged a huge shoulder.

"Alright." Amanda tucked the earpiece in place and nodded to Daisy. The young man spun back to his terminal and played the recording.

Amanda winced with a hiss at the sudden garble of static and interference in the transmission. Federation standard equipment was not being used to transmit that was for damn sure. She adjusted the volume on the earpiece and listened to the actual wording. She frowned.

"Can I…?" Amanda learned over Daisy, reaching for the terminal controls.

"Of course." Daisy vacated his chair and Amanda took over from him.

Daisy held his own earpiece steady, listening as she brought up the wave length adjustment tools and set to playing with the settings. He watched, frowning, considering that Amanda might not be up to spec on this equipment, the 'Fleet had the cutting edge after all, but then jolted when a whole other layer of sound merged with the first. The static disappeared.

"There we go." Amanda spun in the chair to face Drahl and Daisy. "That...hiss-pop? That's 'queen'."

"They think you have their queen? Hiresh, was it?" Drahl queried.

"Hiresh is dead. Eaten." Amanda answered absently, turning back to the console to fidget with the controls again. She missed the way Drahl and Daisy exchanged a glance at the mention of anyone being eaten.

Daisy listened with raised brows as another layer of sound came into being.

"Where are you getting this?"

"EM frequencies. Gorn are sensitive to them and they're something a handheld translator wouldn't have access to…" Amanda carefully rotated a dial. "There, that group of sounds, means 'enemy'. They're definitely calling for me, that was what Hiresh called me. They're not calling for her, they're calling for me."

"Why would they do that?" Drahl wanted to know.

"Beats the hell out of me, Captain. We didn't exactly part on the best of terms." Amanda stood, removing her earpiece so she didn't have to listen to Gorn vocal chords regurgitate her name or something that sounded like a bastardised version of it. "They could be baying for my blood for all I know."

"Keep working on a translation, Daisy. I'd like to be sure." Drahl turned back to his comm officer.

"Walk with me, Doctor?"

"Is this where I get airlocked?" Amanda smirked.

"Certainly not. Paperwork, remember?" Drahl smiled and herded Amanda out of the bridge and into the turbolift with a nod to another officer to take over the bridge.

Amanda waited him out and was unsurprised when Drahl filled the silence.

"Have you eaten?"

"Yes. Kat Cornwell has been looking after us. She's a good kid."

"She's a fine officer. Coffee? Tea?" Drahl preceded Amanda out of the turbolift and down a corridor to a room that turned out to be the Captain's Mess.

"Uh, coffee would be great." Amanda accepted and let herself be directed to a seat. She looked up when the doors swished open again and another human joined them.

"Nikolai Wells, my XO." Drahl introduced the younger man.

"Nice to meet you, ma'am." Wells shook Amanda's hand and she smirked, a little bemused.

"So everyone keeps telling me." Amanda accepted the mug of coffee as Drahl handed first one to her and then Wells before serving himself. "How can I help you, gentlemen?"

"You're not Starfleet." Drahl stated simply.

"Very true." Amanda nodded.

"And this whole time rewritten shenanigan is...troublesome."

Amanda narrowed her eyes, looking between the two men and she hummed deep in her throat.

"Troublesome in a General Order One sort of way, huh?"

"Yes." Drahl nodded, setting his cup aside. "As Starfleet officers, we cannot interfere with a pre warp civilisation, the rules are very clear on that."

"Bu-ut the Gorn sending subspace communications alongside mine and Sarek's testimony that they are very much post warp...muddies things?" Amanda guessed easily enough.

"Usually, I'd toe the line, stay out of Dodge...but these Gorn have got me worried. You witnessed them lay siege to Starfleet Headquarters? With no warning?"

"It was a massacre. Their weapons are...messy." Amanda finished her coffee and set the mug aside.

"I'd like to ascertain if there are any post warp Gorn on that planet. I'd like to know if they still hold us ill will."

"And what better way to do that than to...introduce someone you know will get a reaction from them, right?"

"Right." Drahl nodded. "You know I can't order you and I'm loathe to put a civilian in this position but the Doctors tell me that you might have your own reasons for talking to them, is that right?"

Amanda's jaw clenched so hard a muscle ticked under her cheekbone. She sat forward in her chair, elbows propped on her knees.

"I guess the possibility of me shedding my skin in favour of scales trumps Doctor-patient confidentiality?"

"It does, Doctor Grayson. We've never seen a gene therapy like the one used on you. Your DNA is rewriting as we speak."

"Yeah." Amanda managed a scant grin. "So I've been told."

"How are you feeling?" Wells asked and Amanda lanced him with a look.

At least now she knew why everyone kept asking her that.

"I feel great!" Amanda managed a wry laugh. "I've honestly never felt healthier. In fact, I think I've gained muscle tone."

"You're still wearing the monitor Doctor Hayes gave you?"

"Sure am." Amanda pressed her lips together and shoved a hand through her hair. Okay. Enough dawdling. "Alright, if I'm going down there, I'm going to need a few things."

"Within reason." Drahl nodded.

"I'm going to need a Starfleet uniform you don't mind me altering, Paris and Georgiou should accompany me and at least two men a piece for each of them."

"Doable."

"I'm not done. I'll also need all the jewellery you can source, some body paint and -this one’s the important one- someone has to keep Sarek distracted."

Drahl and Wells exchanged a look. Both of them understandably wary at the prospect of lying to an Ambassador.

Still. They needed her to do this.

"Done."

**_Back in Guest Quarters…_ **

Amanda’s head lifted in surprise when the doors to the guest quarters suite opened on her approach.

She hesitated a half second, expecting someone to be leaving, and her brows rose when she realised that they were keyed to her presence. She slipped inside and looked around the much larger suite that had been appointed to Sarek since he had made his escape from Sickbay.

Padding across the plush carpet, taking in how the rooms were easily three times the size of hers, Amanda felt a smirk tug at her lips.

“What it is to be popular.” Amanda spoke, knowing full well that Sarek already knew she was there but she wanted to give the human measuring him some warning.

The tailor twisted on his knees, evidently surprised at her approach but said nothing. Actively biting his tongue when Sarek ignored the need to stay still and turned to face Amanda rather than the holo-mirror that had been set up to show him different Vulcan styles of robes.

“The original quarters were acceptable.” Sarek’s mind brushed against hers and Amanda’s smile turned to something softer at the greeting. She crossed the room to drop down onto an available chair. Which was far nicer than anything in her guest quarters.

“Those are in my name. You’ll shock the uniforms.” Amanda folded one leg over the other and winked at the tailor from the Quartermaster’s office when he glanced up at her. The young man flushed and ducked his head, turning back to his padd.

“Of the two of us, I believe that more suiting to your temperament.” Sarek glanced down at the man at his heels and decided to stay where he was and let the human finish.

He had attempted to explain that there was no real need to have new schematics added to the replicator database, the _Arcadia_ was not a diplomatic vessel after all, but the Captain had insisted. Sarek was an ambassador and should be made comfortable. Captain Drahl had seemed immovable on the idea of Sarek being ‘properly looked after’. So a young man with a measuring tool and a padd had come along to fit Sarek with a new wardrobe, escort him to larger and more decadent quarters and otherwise cater to Sarek’s every whim.

Something that Sarek might have found irritating had he not kept a leash on that sort of thing.

“I resemble that remark.” Amanda stretched over a hardwood coffee table and helped herself to the fruit basket there. “I didn’t get freebies.”

Sarek cocked his head.

“Free stuff.” She clarified.

“Humans do not pay for fresh produce.” Sarek tilted his head the other way. “Nutrient dense foods are deemed a necessity and as such a human right. Is this different on Federation ships?”

“No. I’m just saying, I like grapes.” Amanda popped one of the red fruits into her mouth and let it burst tart and juicy on her tongue.

“You heard the recording?” Sarek decided not to get drawn into that argument.

“Yeah. They’re definitely after me.” Amanda lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “Drahl says there’s…murk surrounding General Order One.”

“General Order One is not usually something that is prone to murk.” Sarek draped his hands behind his back.

“Having sections of time rewritten on several different planets is far from usual, I think you’ll agree?” Amanda finished her grapes and culled an orange from the herd next. “Drahl wants a threat assessment. He’s going to send an away team down there. Set up a meet in a remote location and see what the Gorn want.”

Sarek’s brow tightened in a manner that made it clear he wished to frown but he didn’t quite let it happen.

“I’m just the messenger.” Amanda spread her hands. “It’s hardly up to me to talk a Captain in full possession of his pips out of doing whatever the hell he wants on his own Starship.”

“Captain Drahl does not own the _Arcadia_.” Sarek pointed out mildly, having taken a moment to figure her meaning. “Though it is true that Captains are often granted a certain leeway when in the field.”

“Not my job.” Amanda shrugged. “I’m literally just here for the ride home.”

“I’m finished, Ambassador.” The ensign rose to his feet, holding his padd to his chest. “If I may take my leave, we can have these specs added to the database pretty quickly. I can call you when your clothing will be ready to download and replicate.”

“This is acceptable. I thank you for your attention.”

“Uh, you’re welcome.” The man dipped his chin in a nod that nearly morphed into a bow before he caught himself. He smiled nervously at Sarek and then Amanda. “Ambassador, ah, Lady Amanda.”

The boy all but clicked his heels and beat feet for the door, leaving Amanda frowning in his wake.

“ _Lady_ Amanda?!” She looked up at Sarek, brow raised. “Have you been getting ahead of yourself?”

“Many of the crew are…aware of our affiliation. It is the subject of much discourse in the Mess Hall.” Sarek crossed the space between them to stand over her. He reached out very gently to sweep a stray curl of hair back from her face, measuring the soft texture of it between his fingers. “They are unaware that Vulcan hearing abilities far surpass their own.”

“They say anything interesting?” Amanda let him pet her hair, he seemed to like doing so and she was hardly likely to stop him at this juncture.

After all, she might not _have_ hair tomorrow.

Amanda shoved that thought away rather than let it take root somewhere Sarek might notice it. He had enough to deal with without having to contend with something he could do nothing to fix.

She’d spoken in depth with Doctor Hayes. He was as fascinated as he was horrified by what the Gorn regenerative treatment was doing to her DNA but he was limited in what he could do. He had attempted all methods to combat the treatment, which was roving through her system like a virus.

The Gorn serum had eaten every single one of the treatments and had even evolved to utilise some of the more virulent ones in order to overtake her own system faster than it already was.

Hayes had assured Amanda that it was not yet harming her. The main worry was apparently that the hyper-replication of her cells would continue unchecked and lead to some sort of primitive cancer formation but that had not eventuated yet. There were other worries such as her body beginning to reject the Gorn serum or indeed her own tissues but that hadn’t happened yet either.

All Amanda could really do now, under orders, was wear her monitor and tell someone if she felt like she might be turning into an eight foot lizard any time soon.

Amanda shook her head minutely and tuned back into Sarek when he continued to speak to her. 

“There was much discussion as to how you would…tolerate such a liaison between yourself and a ‘computer’.” Sarek moved away from her to take the seat opposite hers on the other side of the low table.

“I think we both know that I think nothing of the kind of you.” Amanda watched Sarek for a long moment, allowing herself to play it out in her head.

It felt particularly stupid, having this discussion when she didn’t know if she’d survive long enough for it to become at all pertinent, but he knew her well enough to know that she wouldn’t let this sort of thing pass without comment.

“I imagine that your people might have a few things to say about you…courting a barbarian.”

“Humans are not barbaric.”

“I am.” Amanda shrugged. “When it suits me.”

“You do seem particularly reluctant to be tamed.” Sarek sat back in his chair and watched her with an unreadable expression. “I find your obstinate independence…appealing.”

“Well. I give that a week.” Amanda managed a laugh and she could feel his answering amusement through the bond. She considered that a moment. “Though…I have to admit, I might not have given you the chance had I not been able to feel the bond as I do.”

“I think not.” Sarek raised his hands, resting his fingertips against one another. “You have exhibited an alacrity for reading –ah- micro-expressions? Even had you been guessing my motivations, those would have been educated.”

“Maybe.” Amanda lifted a shoulder.

“Something troubles you.” Sarek watched her face closely. “I am no expert on human expressions…but you have been behaving oddly.”

“That must be saying something.” Amanda smirked.

“The incidence in which you deflect rather than answer a question directly has increased by approximately thirty seven per cent.”

“Approximately?”

“Closer to thirty eight percent now.” Sarek tilted his head and Amanda inhaled deeply.

“You’re not going to like it.”

“I will express neither positive nor negative emotions no matter what you say.” Sarek mirrored her shrug and she grinned because it looked so odd. Such a vague human gesture on such a precise Vulcan.

“Well…Drahl wants me to be there when the away team beam down to meet the Gorn. I’ve met them before and I’ll have a better read on them than the officers involved.” Amanda was careful not to lie to him, she thought he’d sense that, but if he came to an incorrect conclusion…well. “I’ll be away for most of the afternoon. I’m not really looking forward to it.”

“There is no reason that you must participate. Even in an advisory capacity. Starfleet officers are trained for First Contact situations. They will operate efficiently with or without your insights.”

“Yes, but the Gorn are dangerous and I can’t think of a single weapon Starfleet is packing short of orbital bombardment that would so much as slow one of them down if the need arose. The away team will be all but defenceless and if I can help them stay alive and uninjured then I figure I have to do it. A little discomfort on my part would be worth that.”

“Your decision seems…wise.”

“Humans don’t always enjoy doing the right thing.” Amanda spread her hands.

“I will accompany you if you wish it.” Sarek offered when she did not ask. “If my presence would grant you some comfort then you may have it.”

“That Vulcan cruiser is going to be docking in a couple of hours, I think you’re going to be otherwise occupied.” Amanda shrugged again with a small smile. “I’ll be fine.”

Sarek mulled that over. The Vulcan cruiser had already hailed Captain Drahl. It was indeed Sarek’s Sister By Law that had chartered the vessel and she wished to see Sarek as soon as the ship arrived. It was less than ideal but Sarek was obligated to meet her. The death of his first bondmate had meant that the matriarchy of the clan had passed to T’Rea’s sister; T’Vaal. Sarek’s family and T’Vaal’s were of equal lineage and –as such- meant that Sarek was in a manner, beholden to her. She had been able to take Sybok to be raised on R’Moth as the next heir to the lunar colony.

In short, he would have to meet T’Vaal and could not accompany Amanda instead.

“Is there any urgency to the mission?” Sarek queried. “Why must it be carried out this afternoon?”

“From what I understand; we can’t hide here indefinitely. The Gorn may be pre-warp but they’re not stupid. Their sensor satellites are quite sophisticated and it’s taking some interesting flying to keep us off their sensor sweeps. That and your sister-in-law refusing to hang fire while we check out the Gorn means that we’re twice as likely to be spotted. Drahl wants us out of here as quickly as we can.”

“Has the situation been explained to T’Vaal?”

“Your in-law?” Amanda nodded when Sarek confirmed. “Yeah. She wasn’t really…cooperative when it came to keeping her distance. I only heard part of the exchange but she seems… _pissed_.”

“An apt description from what I know of my Sister By Law.” Sarek murmured and tamped down on the _strong_ flex of irritation that seemed to push up against the inside of his ribs.

“She’s a pistol.” Amanda agreed easily enough with a bright smile. “So…I was thinking that we could have a fortifying lunch and then deal with our respective trials by fire?”

Sarek focussed on Amanda once more, rather than impending family matters, when he realised she had returned to him for the sole purpose of…enjoying his company. Something very like a smile glinted in his dark eyes.

“We shall be the subject of much –ah- gossip?” Sarek tried on the new word for size.

“Well, if you’re _very good_ ,” Amanda rose to her feet and crossed to him, “we can give them something to really talk about.”

Amanda bent, pressing her lips to his in a short but heated contact. Watching him with hooded lashes as she straightened.

“You coming?”

“I believe the human response to that would be…’not yet’.” Sarek rose to his full height and was rewarded with a full throated laugh from her. 

“You understood humans far better than you pretend, Ambassador.”

“I wish only to understand one in particular.” Sarek held out his hand towards the doors, indicating she should precede him.

Sarek tilted his head when Amanda bit her lip. A manifestation of anxiety or indecision from her, he had learned.

Though she shook it off with another smile before he could query it.

Ah well, lunch first. He would have much time to ask her all the questions he desired in the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think my favourite part of Discovery's characterisation of Amanda is that she's a professional wildcard. She steals when it suits her, uses her husband's diplomatic immunity as a blunt instrument and isn't having any of Starfleet's bullshit when it affects her babies. I can only imagine her being a holy terror on Vulcan for the longest damn time until they learned to just give her whatever she wanted before she took it under her own power. 
> 
> In Discovery, when she hides Spock to save him from Section 31, Sarek isn't even remotely surprised. I got the vibe that he was kind of long suffering that his wife lied to him (again), that he fell for it (again) and that she was really smart about how she went about doing the lying (also again). 
> 
> Still, he loves her, even if his emotional constipation means he cannot say it. Least he can do is stand by her even if she's crazy.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17 – Out of the Impulse Manifolds and into the Warp Core**

**_The Transporter Room…_ **

“You are certain you wish to continue?” Commander Wells turned to look down at Doctor Grayson.

He understood his Captain’s reasoning, she was far from a civilian and had dealt with the species before, but something in Wells baulked at putting her front and centre for an official First Contact.

“Well, I already put on all this crap so I might as well.” Amanda fidgeted with the strings of pearls adorning her hair and turned to Paris. “My crown on straight?”

“Here.” Paris stepped forward to straighten the elaborate metal hairpiece that Amanda referred to as her crown.

She was dressed and then some.

She wore an altered Starfleet uniform with command gold trailing up over her flanks against the deep blue there. The sleeves and back had been cut away to reveal much of her pale skin. Intricate black and silvery swirls and whorls decorated every inch of visible skin, even fanning out around her eyes. Her lips were painted with more silver and she wore _far_ too much jewellery. Silver dripped from her hair, her ears, gold circled her neck and wrists and she even had metal sharp caps over each fingernail.

“Is this really necessary?” Wells noted all the finery. Most of it replicated and would be recycled once the mission was done with but it seemed…unseemly to have the uniform changed in such a way.

“From what I’ve seen, the Gorn are magpies. They like shiny trophies and their queens in particular. You’re lucky I’m not going down there naked. That’s how Hiresh was under her armour.”

Wells made an odd sound in between his nose and his throat and Amanda grinned at him.

“The nudity is to prove they can withstand temperatures the others can’t. I think. Either that or it’s just for the intimidation factor.” Amanda shrugged. “Could go either way.”

Wells hissed out a low breath. He _did not like this_.

“It’ll be fine. Just stay behind Paris and Georgiou and don’t ask any questions. They’re a strictly matriarchal society and if one of them feels like you’ve insulted their local queen then it’s _me_ that has to fight another dinosaur. We clear?” Amanda turned to look at the assembled team and was treated to a chorus in the affirmative. “Good. Because I really don’t want to do that again.”

 _“Bridge to Commander Wells._ ”

“Here, sir.” Wells moved closer to the computer terminal his captain’s voice issued from.

_“Eight lifesigns have arrived at the pre-arranged coordinates. I think that would be your cue.”_

“Aye, sir. Permission to disembark?”

_“Granted. Godspeed, Commander.”_

“Sir.” Wells nodded and turned to look down at Amanda. “When you’re ready.”

“Oh, almost never.” Amanda let loose a breath that shook only a little and turned to mount the steps up onto the transporter pad. She wasn’t a huge fan of these things, but it wasn’t like they could take a shuttle into orbit when they weren’t even supposed to be there.

The rest of the away team; Wells, Georgiou, Paris and a bunch of the largest male security personnel that Amanda had ever seen all trooped up onto the pad after her. She knew that another team was in another transporter room to bulk their numbers up to eight. Same as the Gorn. They wanted to appear as equals, not as an invading force.

Amanda inhaled a deep breath, mentally questioned her sanity once more, then nodded mostly to herself.

“Let’s boogie.”

Wells nodded to the transport technician and Amanda winced when the beam took hold of her body and began to decompile it.

She _really_ hated transporters.

**_Elsewhere, the Diplomatic Guest Quarters…_ **

Sarek adjusted his robes one final time in front of the holo-mirror and ascertained that his appearance was all that it should be.

T’Vaal was overly preoccupied by appearances, as far as Sarek was concerned. Any sign of dishevelment on his part would be treated as sign that he was unfit to visit his own son.

“Ambassador, your mantle is not aligned…shall I help?” Kat Cornwell had been left to look after Sarek and serve in lieu of a staff. He had found her to be quite competent.

“Please.” Sarek met Cornwell’s eyes in the mirror and nodded.

She touched his clothing no more than was necessary, two small tugs to straighten the lines of his robes and make him presentable. She stepped back with a decisive nod.

“Looks good.”

“Thank you.” Sarek turned and let his gaze traverse the suite he had been gifted for his stay aboard the _Arcadia_.

It was large and well appointed. Opulent, even, for a Federation starship. Starships that had become more and more suited to long term habitation the further humanity had found themselves travelling into space. Still, T’Vaal would find something wanting. She always did.

A small chirp sounded from Cornwell’s padd and she looked down at the message that popped up onto the screen.

“They’re here.” She crossed the room to the main doors of the suite and Sarek had time to wonder who T’Vaal had brought with her before Cornwell palmed the controls so that the doors hissed apart.

“Sa-mekh!”

Sarek’s chin rocked up when his tiny son tottered into view, his sleeve held in T’Vaal’s firm grip. This slim hold made no difference to Sybok as he twisted in an expert move, obviously well practiced, slipping from his small robe entirely and dashing across the room straight to Sarek.

“My son.” Sarek risked all and ignored T’Vaal in favour of his child.

He stooped to catch Sybok as the three year old barrelled towards him at top speed and was forced to do so more actively when Sybok launched himself at Sarek from over a metre away. He had to sweep forward a step and snatch Sybok out of the air as he was perpendicular to the carpet before he fell flat on his face. Releasing a sudden breath, Sarek switched his hold on Sybok, cradling him in one arm and holding him to his chest.

“Sa-mekh! Sa-mekh!” Sybok babbled happily, grinning broadly and promptly clapped both hands to Sarek’s face, small fingers pressing inexpertly on the psy-points there.

“Sybok, this is how we greet one another. Yes?” Sarek held up his hand, his fingers splayed in the greeting that even humans were familiar with. “Peace and long life. Let me hear your standard.”

Sybok clapped his comparatively tiny hand against Sarek’s palm, his upswept brows furrowed as he worked to form his fingers into a salute that was still not habit to him. He managed it after a long moment and spoke with careful deliberation.

“Liff looong and pros-purr.” He nodded his little head with each syllable and Sarek let a small portion of his pride float along the connection between them.

Sybok grinned broadly, dropped his hand from the salute and slung his arms around Sarek’s neck, clinging to him with the determination that only three year olds can muster.

With Sybok happily occupied, Sarek could turn his attention to his Sister By Law. She stood just inside the doorway of the suite, clearly reluctant to enter any further than she already had. She was over three decades older than Sarek though the age difference was difficult to notice other than the slightest fine lines encroaching upon the edges of her umber eyes.

T’Vaal did not possess the classical Vulcan beauty that her younger sister had possessed but she was a handsome enough female. She led her clan with a cool detachment that had been so far from T’Rea’s compassion that it was difficult at times to fathom that they had been related at all. Though related they had been. Which meant that T’Vaal could and would raise Sybok as her own as he was the only heir to the lunar colony upon which her family lived.

“Sister By Law, peace and long life.” Sarek lifted his free hand to salute his elder and then settled it onto Sybok’s back once more, rubbing small circles there in an action that had always suited the boy even as a babe.

He could sense through their bond, empowered by the tactile contact between them that he required his father’s closeness. Sybok was all but exhausted, despite his apparent happiness at seeing Sarek. He was wrapped around his father’s neck with a fearsome grip despite the fatigue that weighed upon his small bones. Sarek could sense that his son had not slept properly in days and that he was bordering on ill.

Sarek was momentarily taken aback by the red hot throb of emotion that threatened to overwhelm him at that. Why would his son, given to the care of one who was supposed to be better for him than his own father, be so close to illness?

It was an act of will to remain calm and impassive externally.

“Live long and prosper, brother.” T’Vaal hummed in response, her nostrils flared as she stared at Kat Cornwell as if she had defecated in the corner.

Sarek braced himself for the coming confrontation and was not disappointed. T’Vaal turned to face Sarek and spoke in their native tongue.

“You may dismiss the pet.”

“She is far from a pet, sister. She has been appointed by the captain of this vessel to aide me in whichever way I need. A show of human manners,”

“She clutters my senses with her obnoxious odour.” T’Vaal swept forward, gathering up Sybok’s tunic and folding it neatly over itself.

She lowered herself into one of the spare chairs without being invited. She knew well enough that she had no need to wait upon Sarek’s hospitality. It would be given to her as a matter of course.

“She is a ranking officer of the Federation and as such is one of Vulcan’s eldest allies. If you may not speak of her with respect, attempt not to at all.” Sarek rocked a little with Sybok, he had liked that as a baby and his son needed to sleep. He continued to rub the boy’s back in soothing circles and ignored the slightest narrowing of T’Vaal’s eyes at the action.

Sybok had different needs from other children his age and T’Vaal well knew it. Sarek was not going to have this discussion again.

“Am I to be served? When your hands are, of course, free, brother.” T’Vaal nodded to the tea set already available to them. Apparently she wished to discuss the matter anyway. 

"Should I serve the tea, Ambassador?" Cornwell spoke suddenly in Standard, apparently unaware of the content of Sarek and T'Vaal's conversation but making an educated guess.

"Please." Sarek nodded and Kat moved to assist, leaving Sarek to hold Sybok.

T'Vaal watched Kat's approach with eyes that narrowed minutely. Kat hesitated a half step, seeming to falter at T'Vaal's apparent aggression, but then continued to circle around the Vulcan female to serve from her right, as was custom. Kat carried out the brief tea service flawlessly and then stood back at ease.

It did not pass Sarek by that she had positioned herself between one of the environmental units circulating the air through the room and T'Vaal. Effectively placing T'Vaal downwind.

If the faintest hint of a curl to Kat's lips was any indication, it had been a purposeful move.

T'Vaal, finding no way to further blame Kat for merely existing when she served an evident purpose and competently so, turned her attentions to Sarek.

"Do sit, brother. We must speak of your son and his unacceptable behaviours."

"Must we." Sarek sat since she had finally invited him to do so. He glanced at Sybok, confirming what he had already guessed that the toddler was fast asleep.

Sarek allowed himself to note the swell of affection he felt for his son. He kept it banked behind his mental shields so that it did not disturb Sybok, but he allowed himself to feel as much. He had been lucky to survive the last few days, the casted evidence still encased one foot, it was incredible that he had survived in order to see his son once more. Even if he had come with the unfortunate entourage of T'Vaal, Sarek decided any discomfort was worth it.

"He refuses to learn control." T'Vaal began, one of her favoured arguments. "He is behind his peers in learning and is demonstrative, vocally and physically, when denied his every whim."

"Why are you here?" Sarek lifted his head suddenly.

"You were kidnapped." T'Vaal spoke after a hesitant moment. Unaccustomed to being interrupted.

"Yes. Though that happened days ago and I was taken from Earth."

"We are family." T'Vaal spoke stiffly, even for a Vulcan.

"You misunderstand, I wish to know why you chartered your ship to come to rendezvous with the _Arcadia._ Why not wait to meet me back on Earth or at least in safer space?" Sarek pushed.

"Because your son threw a tantrum!" T'Vaal snapped and Sarek raised a brow.

T'Vaal subsided, but it was an act of will.

"The day you went missing, he flew into a rage and would not be calmed. It only grew worse as time passed and did not subside until I agreed to travel to you." T'Vaal swept imaginary fluff from the edge of her robe. Her tone clipped once more. "When we did not leave immediately, he became violent and illogical again."

"Violent. He hurt someone?"

"No. I would not allow that."

"He hurt himself?"

"No."

"Then against what did he become violent? Did he break his toys?"

"He _shouted_ , brother. That is violent."

"Children shout, sister. He is still learning the ways of Surak. Our childhoods were long ago but I do not believe either of us to have been devout at the age of three." Sarek kept his tone quiet, more in deference to Sybok than his Sister By Law.

"Vulcan children do not act as he does." T'Vaal insisted.

"He shouted after you had told him you would travel to meet me and did not do so?"

"You had not been found then!" T'Vaal flicked her fingers as if to dismiss the notion. "It would have been travel for the sake of it. A waste of resources."

"So you lied to him?"

T'Vaal stiffened once more and glared at Sarek. He met her gaze coolly, he would gain nothing by becoming emotional. Even if he did wish to bare his teeth at her more than he ever had at the Gorn.

"You speak as if he can be reasoned with."

"I confess I would not know. I have not been given the chance to attempt reason with my son." Sarek leaned forward to help himself to some tea. "Nor any other approach."

"You know he benefits from a true Vulcan upbringing." T'Vaal's tone was icy.

"That decision was made unilaterally and before I could even voice my opinion from the same planet." Sarek set his teacup down with deceptive gentility. Perhaps it was his experiences with wrestling reptiles but he had a sudden urge to shake the Vulcan female and he was careful to stow it away so it did not distract him.

"Because you refused to perform the ritual to cleanse him of these impurities of the mind." T'Vaal spoke with the weary tone of an elder repeating a longstanding argument.

"He need not be 'cleansed'. To do so would change him for life and I do not believe for the better. Sybok may never grow to be as controlled as many Vulcans but he has never moved to harm anyone nor himself. He can be a functioning member of our society. He may function differently but diversity has never been a problem for the followers of Surak."

"His differences will affect his entire life. I have been attempting to find him a palatable match for one of his bloodline and it is a task I would wish upon no one." T'Vaal flexed her fingers on the armrests of the chair.

"Then the argument is moot anyway. If I were to purge him of all emotion, he would never be expected to take a mate nor inherit the colony of R'moth." 

"He would, however, serve ably as a priest."

"Leaving you free to choose an heir more _suiting_ to inherit." Sarek cocked his head. "I believe a human would call that a startling coincidence."

"You have spent too long with the logical fallacies of humans, brother. You attribute motive to me where there is none."

"I have only your word on that." Sarek noted mildly and it struck a nerve.

"Vulcans do not lie." T'Vaal reminded him sharply.

"You lied to my son. Why not to me?" Sarek knew he was pushing her.

It was perhaps the recklessness that he had witnessed in Amanda that influenced him, perhaps T'Vaal was right, but Sybok was not bettered by being with his aunt and Sarek knew this also. She had freely admitted to lying to him simply because it was easier to attempt to appease him. Which would do him no good if Sybok was to learn control. 

He would have to learn to trust others as well as himself if he was ever to be a functional member of society. That was all that Sarek wished for him. It was the only reason he had not contested T'Vaal in her right to raise Sybok as heir as it had been put to Sarek that T'Vaal's permanent position on R'moth, a Vulcan society, would see that Sybok had every advantage.

Every advantage if she was _willing_ to provide them that was.

"Your ordeal must have been more trying than I was told, brother. You forget your manners."

"But I have never forgotten my oaths." Sarek rumbled in response. "When I wed T'Rea, I vowed to be her bondmate and father to her children. The former I maintained until her death, the latter I continue to strive toward. Up until now, it has only been _manners_ that have stayed my hand."

"You threaten me?"

"I apologise if you have felt alarmed by a statement of fact." The idea solidified in Sarek's mind and he was implementing it before he thought better of it. He might not be given this chance again. "I release my son from your custody. His welfare is no longer your concern."

T'Vaal blinked at him. Twice.

"Is this some bizarre form of human humour?" Her voice held a note of warning but Sarek was past heeding it. His son needed him and it was a risk he must take.

"I am well known for such jocular activities." Sarek nodded, never breaking eye contact.

"Enough of this. Sybok is coming with me." T'Vaal rose to her feet sharply and Sybok jolted awake at the change in tone.

He cringed into Sarek's neck and the act caused a pulse of blood green to throb in the edges of Sarek's vision before he could stifle it.

"He is not."

"He is my responsibility. He leaves with me now." T'Vaal almost spoke from behind bared teeth.

"You are absolved of all responsibility. You are free to raise your own choice as heir to R'moth. I care not for the legalities but, sister," Sarek's tone lowered when T'Vaal took a step towards him, "should you try and take him from me, you will have to render me unconscious or dead to do so."

T'Vaal halted in her approach, evidently surprised and it was then that Kat chose to remind them of her presence.

Her Vulcan accent was flawless.

"As a representative of Earth on a human ship, I am bound to protect the Ambassador with my life. Moving to harm him would be... inadvisable. I have no wish to do murder today." Kat did not move until T'Vaal turned to glare at her and it was only then that she shifted to a ready stance, hands at her side, close to the phaser she wore on one hip.

Sarek was almost certain she had not been wearing that a moment ago.

"It is clear to me that this emotional volatility comes from a poor bloodline in his father's side." T'Vaal all but spat, poorly concealing her rage. "I will return to Vulcan where this shall be taken up with the relevant authorities."

"Do as you must, sister."

"Our family ties are done!"

"That would make reclaiming Sybok all the more difficult but I shall note it in my testimony to the relevant authorities." Sarek felt a surreal sense of calm settle over him.

He had, in human parlance, kicked the hornets nest but he was unafraid of the sting, as it were. He had done the right thing. The only morally acceptable thing.

He had been an absent father for much of Sybok's life and as such had not noticed the deep bond T'Rea had formed with him. Had he known, you could have been more aware of the consequences of her death and how to manage Sybok in the following period of mourning. Instead, he had allowed his son to be taken from him and raised by another. Again.

No more.

He did not know if he would be any better suited to being a full time caregiver than T'Vaal but Sybok would almost certainly be better off. Sarek was committed to learning how to help his son, which was more than could be said of his aunt.

T'Vaal spun away to see Kat fully.

"I will leave now." She uttered in clipped Standard.

"We shall gladly escort you to the transporter room." Kat smiled broadly and turned to march to the door, palming it open to reveal two large security personnel accompanying T'Vaal's lone guard that had been ordered to wait outside. "Gentlemen, please see the lady off the ship with all good haste."

A chorus in the affirmative made Kat's smile broaden even further as she turned to bow in what even Sarek could tell was a mocking manner and wave the Vulcan woman out of the guest suite.

T'Vaal, retaining her composure through sheer stubbornness, left in a billowing sweep of her robes.

The doors hissed shut behind her.

"She seemed nice." Kat turned to Sarek, all trace of a smile gone. "Are you alright?"

"I am functioning well." Sarek rose to his feet, settling Sybok into a doze once more. He limped towards Kat and spoke in the same immovable tone he had used on T'Vaal.

"Though I would appreciate if you would explain to me why Amanda Grayson is no longer on this ship."

He watched as the hue of Kat's face altered several shades to the paler and his voice devolved closer to a growl.

"Now."

**_On the Surface…_ **

Amanda weaved when the transporter deposited her with a shimmer...onto a tussock of scrubby grass.

A sound of displeasure drew her glance and she found Wells, Paris and Georgiou at her back with the several other security officers less fortunate in their footing. They appeared to be in or on the edge of marshland and a few of the crew were knee-deep in water of questionable cleanliness.

Amanda turned back to regard the planet at large, what seemed to be the Gorn homeworld, and took it all in.

The landscape was flat and featureless for as far as she could see. Nothing but marsh beyond bog beyond mire. The blueish grass wafted in a breeze that seemed to be about three thousand percent humidity and the sky hung a sullen orange with violet clouds overhead. The twin suns of the system showing red through this atmosphere and sizzling over her bare shoulders.

The Gorn were less than twenty metres away.

Amanda inhaled deeply and glanced back at her company once more.

"Wait here."

"But- -!" 

"Wells, if you openly defy me, you'll get us all killed. They can close this distance in a heartbeat, they're all bigger than us, faster, meaner and can snap a man in half with a hefty look." Amanda turned to favour him with a heavy glance. "Hero is just a word for someone who gets other people killed."

Wells bit down on any other protest and grasped his phaser tightly. Amanda had told him it would do them no good, the rifles were more for show than anything else. They would splash harmlessly off the Gorn's hide but she supposed it did make them all feel better to at least have the pretence of being armed.

Turning back to the Gorn, Amanda started across the swamp towards them.

At her approach, one of the larger males and a very small figure broke off from the group and started towards her.

Amanda was surprised that she reached what she gauged to be the halfway point between the groups before the male did but it became clear why when he drew closer through the heat haze.

A child, gangly limbed and spindly tailed, picked its way towards Amanda.

She saw the fanning scales just beginning to broaden across a skinny chest, gold adorning dark limbs in swirling paint, beads punctuated a few feathery dorsal spines and vivid blue eyes rose to meet Amanda's before sliding away.

Hiresh's successor.

Likely her daughter.

Good grief.

Amanda swallowed it down and stood at ease. Well, as at ease as she could when the ground beneath her was in danger of subsidence. She shifted a little onto footing that felt a little more solid and turned her attention to the male.

He was the largest Amanda had seen and it was only when he drew closer that Amanda recognised the ugly gouged wound sealing and sticky in the side of his skull where one eye should be.

The male that had tortured her, drowned her. The one whose eye she had burst on her thumb.

Well.

Amanda didn't know much about interplanetary politics but she assumed that this wasn't a good thing.

She glanced down at the child when it stopped a few feet away from her. The junior queen wore only jewellery, as Hiresh had done.

Another glance at the male Gorn saw him in a form fitting body suit but no armour and no helm. He carried a wicked looking knife at his side but not the plasma disruptor that exploded people nor the bolt gun that ventilated anything at five feet or more. None of the Gorn that she could see wore their EV suits but then, they had likely evolved in this climate and didn't need them.

The tiny queen spoke in a garble of hissing and chuffing and Amanda turned her attention there.

Ah.

Amanda made a production of reaching to the hip of her uniform and picking up the communicator there with two fingers to show it wasn't a weapon.

Both Gorn simply watched her, seemingly baffled, but allowed her to do as she would. She flipped open the communicator and held it between them, she nodded.

"Go ahead."

"Greetings, Hera."

Amanda frowned, was the little queen Hera? Was the translator even working? They had been playing with it on the ship and had been fairly certain it would pick up all emanations from the Gorn, even those on the visual spectrum flushing over their skins that humans couldn't see that added context to their words.

"Hera?"

"Queen of the Gods?" The little queen glanced uncertainly at her male and then back to Amanda when he remained stoic and impassive.

Amanda scowled at him. She was a little kid.

No doubt lethal even at four feet tall, but still a little kid.

"I see. Your name for me. It is acceptable. What is your name?"

"I am Get of Hiresh. I will gain my true name when it is given to me by the reigning queen."

"Ah." Amanda glanced at the male. Staring resolutely into the middle distance with his remaining good eye. No help there then. "Hiresh...isn't coming back from the planet of the Gods. She...gave her life to them."

"The young one ate her. I know." Get dipped her about in a brief and choppy nod. "Was it punishment?"

Amanda was stunned, was that why she'd been brought here? To tell a daughter how her mother had been a mindless snack to a starving newborn? She hissed out a breath and shook herself when the translator attempted to make sense of the sound.

"I do not know. Your gods are not my gods." That at least was true. "It was quick. She did not suffer."

Get tilted her head at that in an avian notion and the apparent mercy of it seemed to pass her by.

"You bested her in combat. Bloodied her maw and crooked her tail."

"Bested is perhaps a strong word for it." Amanda murmured, remembering the beating she had taken. More than once.

"You are small and soft. You have no talons nor proper teeth but you beat her. You live when she does not." Get looked Amanda up and down. "You are a strange queen, but a queen. We have come to swear fealty and ask that you lift the curse of the gods."

"Swear fealty." Amanda tried not to sound dumb but she _really_ hadn't expected that.

"We are the Gorn of the Black Banded. We alone went to the god world and we alone remember how this world used to be. We had ships that travelled the stars, weapons to aid us in the hunt and armours that purified the air so our warriors could venture off world. That is all gone. The gods took it."

"You don't have ships anymore?" Amandas brows rose. "Nor guns nor EV suits?"

"That is what was said." Get insisted.

"But only the Black Banded, your...family, remember the way it was before?"

"We remember the world before the gods woke. When they woke, their yawn shifted the world. The Gorn world is not as it was. We have no ships. We do not travel off world in the hunt. No one remembers other worlds that we have been to. We have not even trophies taken by my own sire to prove we have been there." Get expanded, obviously thinking Amanda was attempting to test her. "You were left with your ships?"

"Yes...but not unchanged." Amanda glanced at the male. "My blood is different. Like the Gorn now. My home...doesn't remember the Gorn either. Only I and my, the Arcadians, remember."

"You were punished also?" 

"No. The Gorn never hunted on my world. Those they took as prey are no longer dead. To my people, it is more than we could ask for."

"So we have been punished." Get looked up at her father. "Because mother went to the gods."

"Your dead remained dead?"

"Very." Get looked down for a moment. "We have not even their bones for burial." 

"I am sorry. The temple collapsed when we left. There are no bones for us to retrieve as we would collect them for you if we could." Amanda spoke softly, knowing that was the Starfleet thing to do. They wouldn't hesitate.

"You would do such a thing?" Get's head snapped up in surprise. "Why?"

"Because it's the right thing to do." Amanda shrugged. "Many of those Gorn didn't deserve to die. It was not...fitting, in the hunt. Their bones should at least rest with their ancestors."

"This is practiced even in your people?" 

"Whenever we can." Amanda nodded. "When we have no bones to honour, we carve out of stone instead. Honour that. Their names rest beside those of their family. They are not forgotten."

Get considered that a moment and then turned to look up at the male that might be her father.

"We should do that. Carve for them. Remember their names." She turned back to Amanda. "Will you allow us that?"

"I cannot stop you." Amanda was baffled.

"As our queen your word is law."

"As your...what?"

"You bested Hiresh. The Black Banded are yours now." Get waved to the ragtag group not far off. Amanda licked her lips and hummed in the back of her throat.

Great. Now what?

Amanda was frozen for a long moment, caught in indecision. She had absolutely zero desire to stay here with a tribe of Gorn nor take the whole pack home with her but the alternative to accepting might end...poorly.

She wasn't Starfleet. She wasn't trained for this but Captain Drahl had sent her down here _because_ she wasn't 'Fleet. She could do things that they couldn't, like talk to a race of people that both were and were not prohibited under General Order One.

Ah, that would work.

"I cannot." Amanda looked down at Get. "I cannot stay here nor can I take you with me. My gods forbid it until your ships travel the stars again. It would be...unfair of me to take you when we could not look at each others as equals."

Get tilted her head in that birdlike manner again and Amanda struggled not to hold her breath. The air was too damn thick to be doing that. 

"So what is to be done?" Get looked up at her.

"Well, you are Hiresh's daughter, yes? Raised to rule the family whilst she hunted?"

"Yes."

"Then you could take over. You were going to anyway. This is just sooner."

"I have not bloodied you."

"That is not my way."

"It is ours." Get insisted and Amanda stifled the urge to groan.

"I can't just...give it to you?"

"Leadership must be taken."

Amanda looked down at the tiny raptor and strongly considered just bailing but...she had no idea what that would mean. She had failed to save Hiresh, even if it had been from herself, to do the same to her kid was just... unacceptable.

Amanda huffed out a breath.

"Show me your talons."

Get frowned, muzzle crinkling a little, bit lifted one hand obediently. Her claws were shorter than Hiresh's had been and lacked the silver claw sheathes, but they still looked capable of beheading some smaller vertebrates.

"When you bloody a queen, do you get a name? Can you rule over the clan then?"

"If the blooded queen survives, she names her successor."

"What name is your favourite?'

Get thought for a moment, gripping her pointed chin in a startlingly human gesture for a moment. She brightened.

"Vora!"

"Very well." Amanda reached out and gently took Get by the wrist, she set the tiny queen's claws to the back of her forearm and raked them in a sharp swipe through the paint there. Amanda hissed in discomfort even as blood welled from the small wounds. "You're Vora of the Black Banded now."

Get- -Vora, gaped up at Amanda, showing off rows and rows of white fangs.

"You named me?"

"You bloodied me. You named yourself." Amanda showed her the stinging wound as if to prove it and suffered through Vora touching the pads of her claws to the dripping blood.

She smeared two lines down the centre of her snout and her father chuffed as in agreement at the action.

A barking echo of chuffs came from the males stood not far off.

The very tip of Vora's tail quivered in evident excitement and she spun away.

"I must tell them!"

Amanda watched her go, ignoring the sting of her arm and looked up at the one eyed male when he spoke.

"We eat the downed queen, usually."

"You'd choke." Amanda showed all of her teeth to him.

He snorted in evident amusement and turned to leave, their business apparently done.

"One eye!" Amanda called after him and he stilled, turning his head to look at her with his one remaining eye.

"The serum I was given on the planet, the one that makes me heal like a Gorn."

"Yes."

"What does it do? It's changing my DNA and it shows no signs of stopping. What happens to those that aren't Gorn?"

One Eye tilted his head, giving it due thought.

"It is only given to Queens." He decided after a moment. "Queens survive."

"I see." Amanda nodded, huffing out a breath. Had she really expected a different answer?

"Good hunting, Hera."

"Live well, One Eye."

One Eye barked another laugh, turned on his heel and started across the marsh towards the rest of his clan.

Amanda watched him go, arm stinging and heart heavy.

Queens survive.

Well, wasn't that a kick in the head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise for any errors left, my brain is not fully functional right now. 
> 
> But the kids have arrived! There is still drama though. Amanda cannot help herself it seems. 
> 
> Sarek has had a fully day and now he's got to go wrangle her too. He should get used to it, this is the shape of things to come.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for missing yesterday, peeps! 
> 
> My head was banging and computer screens only make it worse like that. So it was a very painful and boring day for me. 
> 
> Still, here we are with the final chapter. 
> 
> Enjoy!

**Chapter 18 – Mission Complete**

**_Back Aboard the_ Arcadia…**

“We need to get you to sickbay.”

“It’s _fine_. Stop fussing.” Amanda attempted to wave Wells away from her but he had a firm grip on her elbow, hoisting her arm above the level of her heart. His uniform jacket removed and bound around the shallow scratches on her arm. “I’ve really had worse.”

“I still don’t see why you had to do that in the first place.” Wells, obviously irritated with a civilian putting themselves in harm’s way, backed down off the transporter pad and towards the doors, intent on dragging Amanda to sickbay if he had to.

“It’s a cultural thing. Their clan would have been without a leader otherwise and I was told to minimise the damage.” Amanda gave in to being manhandled. Wells was considerably larger than she, after all, and he seemed fairly insistent.

“It was a mistake to send you down there.” Wells insisted.

“Nobody _sent_ me anywhere. Had you not dropped me off on our way home, I’d have been back in a few weeks to find answers myself and you know it.” Amanda followed him out into the corridor, absorbed in using a spare bit of uniform to catch dripping blood.

“Is that so?”

Amanda jolted to a halt when Wells did and they found themselves on the business end of a _very_ pissed off Vulcan.

Wells, to his credit, faltered only a moment.

“Can we have this confrontation whilst we walk to sickbay?”

Sarek’s eyes tracked over the uniform jacket wrapped around Amanda’s raised arm, soaked dark with her blood. A muscle in his jaw ticked. He dipped his head in a short nod and stepped back, waving that they should precede him to sickbay.

It was an awkward and silent trip to the infirmary. Amanda’s shoulder was tiring from having her arm cranked at the unnatural angle but she sensed that trying to shift to a more comfortable position would be met with resistance. Wells at her side, looking anywhere but at the Ambassador looming behind them. Sarek stood there like a disapproving shadow, judging them it seemed like, and angrier than Amanda had ever thought possible.

She could feel it, through the bond, now that they were standing within touching distance even if his hands were draped behind his back. Whatever he was feeling, a lot of it negative and too turbulent for Amanda to pick apart, battered him from the inside out. Though she only knew because of the bond. His face remained impassive and his body language attentive but apparently at ease.

Still, Amanda had the very distinct impression that he was waiting to yell at her.

Exiting the turbolift, Amanda was escorted into sickbay where there were yet more people ready to express their displeasure with her.

“Miss Grayson. Hello. _Again_.” Doctor Hayes turned to look at Amanda. She eyeballed him and considered picking and choosing her battles. “What brings you to me this time? Missing any limbs?”

“Just a scratch, doctor.” Amanda mustered a smile and turned to face her next accuser. “Here for a debrief already, Captain?”

Drahl glanced uncertainly at Sarek and then turned his attention to Amanda.

“I was, but I’m willing to wait my turn.”

“What it is to be popular.” Amanda boosted herself up onto the biobed, sitting there with her legs dangling off the end. She mustered a grin from somewhere. “We’ll ignore the gossip, shall we?”

“Do. _Not_.”

Amanda stilled, her eyes darting to Sarek who remained outwardly impassive but those words had been little more than a growl. Amanda was not at all surprised that Wells danced away from her as soon as Hayes was there to take over applying pressure and retreated to the other side of Captain Drahl. Who also took a step back to give Sarek a little more personal space.

Uncomfortable silence fell in the medbay, broken only by Hayes’ inward hiss of breath when he peeled the uniform jacket away from Amanda’s arm.

“Claws?”

“Just little ones.” Amanda glared in return when Hayes huffed at her. She winced when he clapped some sterile gauze onto the wounds and told her to keep it there whilst he was busy. He turned away, going to fetch his hyposprays and tricorder.

Amanda glanced up at Sarek and the Starfleet Officers intent on asking her what had gone on down on the planet and found them locked in a rather one sided and silent argument of some kind. Drahl glanced at Wells, Wells shrugged minutely and both men looked to Sarek who was studiously ignoring them.

Amanda sighed.

“Captain, how about I get treated for my _very minor_ wounds and then come to see you in your ready room for a debrief? After Ambassador Sarek has…assured himself that I’m fine.”

Drahl all but sagged in relief at the thought of someone else handling Sarek, who had been unpredictable enough for the day, and nodded shortly to Amanda.

“Thank you, Doctor Grayson. I’ll speak with my staff in the interim.” Drahl nodded to Amanda and then turned to Sarek to do the same. “Ambassador.”

“Yet another noteworthy decision, Captain. One amongst many.” Sarek told him and Drahl let loose a slow breath with another nod.

It had been a risk to bring Amanda into the First Contact situation. Drahl was uncomfortable at a civilian being harmed under his watch, but apparently not as uncomfortable as he was about to be if the Ambassador started throwing his weight around. Sarek had already apparently burned bridges with his family earlier in the afternoon and seemed to be in the mood to leave strife in his wake.

Drahl felt a twinge of sympathy leaving Amanda to face it alone, but it didn’t stop him leaving her to it. She at least seemed to be liked by the Ambassador if scuttlebutt was to be believed.

Amanda watched the Captain and his first officer depart. She was saved from saying anything to fill the awkward silence surrounding Sarek like a cloud of pollution by the return of Doctor Hayes. The elder man, gently taking her arm and bracing it onto a support pad whilst he peeled away the bandaging to inspect the wounds properly this time.

“Doesn’t seem too bad.” Hayes hummed, pouring saline solution over the wounds to clean the drying blood from them and get a proper look. It took a moment to mop up the running paint that covered Amanda’s arms. “Ugly more than life threatening.”

“There was a reason I picked there to be blooded.” Amanda murmured.

“You don’t get _points_ , Grayson. Infection is still an issue. Particularly from clawing wounds. The talons hook the bacteria deep into the flesh.” Hayes scolded and Amanda decided to let him get it off his chest.

Amanda sat obediently whilst he flushed the wound repeatedly and then moved onto a sonic unit to clean the cuts more thoroughly. Hayes’ hands were quick and efficient. He injected her with various hypos. Sure to add antibiotics, a mild painkiller and some anti-inflammatories. He worked diligently until the bleeding stopped and gave her the first round of dermal regeneration to seal the wounds to angry pink lines.

“Still wearing your monitor?” Hayes finally looked up at her face.

Amanda jerked aside the collar of her modified uniform jacket to show the small oval of black that was her medical monitor situated just below her collarbone on her left.

“Good, I’ll update the readings now.” Hayes lifted his medical tricorder, attaching the node to the monitor and then plugging the node into the tricorder to download the data. He frowned as he scanned the information there. “I’m going to have to take a closer look at this data. _Don’t move_.”

“Sure.” Amanda nodded and let him disappear off to a work terminal. She sat for a moment, her arm propped on the support pad still and then turned to Sarek. “Get it out.”

“You visited the Gorn homeworld.”

“Yes.” Amanda nodded even if it hadn’t really been a question.

“Dressed as a queen.”

“Seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“You deliberately misled me.”

Amanda opened her mouth to speak and then stalled. She huffed out a slow breath and nodded.

“Yeah, I did that too.”

“Why?”

“Would knowing have helped you?” Amanda looked up at him suddenly. Very aware that he was standing over a metre away from her. Farther than he had been from her in quite a while if he could help it. She didn’t like how she was so keenly aware of the distance. Part of her rebelled against it which made her mood less than charitable. “You had your own dragons to slay. Even had I wanted you there, which I didn’t, you couldn’t have been.”

“Why did you not want me there?”

“Oh, I dunno, Sarek. Maybe because the last time we met the Gorn together _you_ nearly died!” Amanda snapped at him. She seethed out a breath and mustered herself under control. “I’m a big girl and I’ve been doing this sort of thing for a long time. It’s not my way to put other people in danger. Especially those I- -especially people that are important.”

“You are lying still.” Sarek remained remote, unmoved by her.

“How would you know?”

“Having seen it once, I now recognise it for what it is. Deception is difficult in a bond such as ours, but you manage it well.”

“I do try.” Amanda’s smile was bitter.

“You are afraid.” Sarek stepped closer and Amanda stiffened. “You wish to fight me because you think that will distract me from this other thing that you hide.”

“I don’t owe you anything, Sarek. Let alone the truth.”

“Another lie.” Sarek stepped closer again, cocking his head and watching her from beneath hooded lashes. “You faced Hiresh, her hunting party armed to the teeth, torture and gods without this kind of fear. It is new…what is it?”

“What does it matter, Sarek?”

“It matters, beloved, because it is you.” Sarek closed the final distance between them, his fingers brushing against her clenched knuckles, fisted atop her leg. “You gave your word. Whatever happened, we would face together. On the planet, you were prepared to die for that.”

“On the planet, I was out of ideas, resources and options. I could do nothing to save you.” Amanda glared up at him but he didn’t move away from her nor release his gentle hold over her hand. He waited with the patience of a continent for her to confess.

She seethed out a sigh.

“You have to break the bond.”

“No.”

“What do you mean, ‘no’?”

“Which part did you misunderstand?” Sarek arched a brow at her. He watched her for a long moment and she could _feel_ his mind whirring as he pondered that. “You do not want to break the bond because you dislike it. You enjoy it. So why…?”

“The Gorn treatment is rewriting my DNA. It’s showing no signs of stopping. Doctor Hayes has no idea what that might mean but projections are…unfavourable. It might not kill me but, then again, I may wish it had.”

Sarek’s brow lowered minutely in a frown and his fingers curled tighter around hers. He thought it over for a moment and then shook his head once.

“I do not care.”

“Sarek, if I go nuts, couldn’t I take you with me?” Amanda twisted her hand beneath his, clasping his hand tightly in hers. “You have a son to consider. He can’t lose another parent.”

“He shall not. Nothing is going to happen to you.”

“You can’t know that.”

“Yes, I can. You still have your third ‘wish’ from the dragon gods. Use that.”

“Sarek, I _can’t_! they rewrote the timelines on what must be _several_ worlds and set an entire civilisation back to their pre-warp days just because you said you’d rather the harm be minimised!” Amanda hissed at him. “I won’t unleash that kind of power on the whole quadrant again. Not for just my life.”

“Then I will.” Sarek spoke as calmly as if he were discussing the weather and Amanda resisted the strong urge to shake him.

“You can’t.”

“I believe it will be relatively simple. I know where you have hidden the scale the dragon gods gifted to you. It would be easy enough to summon them once more and make the request.”

“You don’t know how they’ll twist it. You could ask them to heal me and they might just turn me into something completely different. Maybe the whole way into a Gorn. You could ask them to end my suffering and they could just kill me outright. These creatures don’t think or act like us. Think about it, Sarek. my life is not worth that kind of danger coming to our universe again.”

“That would be a matter of opinion.” Sarek informed her coolly and Amanda could only stare at him.

“You can’t possibly- -!” She floundered for a moment. “I’ve known you for _four days_.”

“Nearly five, now.”

“Oh, well, my mistake. Makes perfect sense then.” Amanda forgot herself, throwing up her injured arm and bracing for the pain when she realised what she’d done.

None came.

Amanda twisted her arm, bringing it between them and examined her wounds.

Gone as if they had never existed. Her skin smudged with whorls of watered down body paint and clean where the scratches had been. She wasn’t even scarred.

“See? That’s not normal. That’s not human. We’re sturdy beasts but we don’t _regenerate_. I’m turning into something else and this is why you have to break the bond. I don’t want to hurt you too.”

“Breaking the bond would harm me.”

“You would _survive!”_ Amanda gritted at him.

“I do not wish for mere survival!” Sarek loomed closer to her suddenly, very much in her personal space. “I have lost much in my life and I very nearly lost even that just a day ago. Survival is not enough. I have regained my son, I will not now lose you. Not if it is within my power to do so.”

“It wouldn’t be your power, Sarek. It wouldn’t be a power you can trust.” Amanda could feel it now.

The part of the bond that she had been shying away from. The bit that she couldn’t bring herself to believe in. He hadn’t said it, of course he hadn’t. It wasn’t his way to profess words of love and even if he had she was far from ready to hear them…but he felt it. He felt it with his entire being and he meant _every word_ about his intentions to summon the dragons to keep her with him.

“If it’s not today or tomorrow or even the day after that, the day _will come_ when you will watch me die.” Amanda looked up at him. “I’m human. My lifespan won’t even be half of yours.”

“You do not know that either. You regenerate now. You could be functionally immortal.”

Amanda coughed a laugh, incredulous. She had not though blind hope in a Vulcan’s repertoire. She gulped down the sound when it threatened to turn into a sob and was unsurprised when Sarek cupped the back of her head in one hand and pulled her into him. His lips rested against her hairline in an almost kiss and he didn’t appear to care that any of the medical staff could see them.

“Beloved, you must not lose hope. We have already survived against all odds. We do not know what this will bring with the Gorn serum but I do know that I will not surrender you. Not if I may prevent it.” He murmured to her in a tone only she could hear and Amanda felt that he really did mean it. He wasn’t going to be swayed by any argument she could come up with. Logical or no.

Must be her effect on him.

“You’re utterly impossible.”

“That is quite the compliment.” Sarek drew back a little so he could meet her gaze once more. “Together. You vowed it. I will hold you to it.”

Amanda let loose a slow breath and nodded. It didn’t seem like she had much of a choice.

“Uh, I hate to interrupt…”

Amanda turned to see Hayes standing uncertainly at the end of the bed. Then again, considering the foul mood that Sarek had been in up until about thirty seconds ago, that was understandable.

“Go ahead, Doctor.” Amanda straightened a little but wasn’t overly surprised when Sarek refused to move himself. He seemed perfectly content to be where he was.

Hayes darted a look at Sarek, obviously concerned about confidentiality and Amanda smirked.

“It’s fine. The Ambassador knows about the complications from the serum. Kind of difficult to hide at this point.” Amanda held up her arm to show it fully healed and Hayes’ eyes went round with surprise.

“Oh!”

“My sentiments precisely.” Sarek murmured, still refusing to back away from her.

“Remarkable.” Hayes said and then shook himself. “Well, that is what I came to talk to you about. It seems that the, ah, serum was searching through your DNA, going strand by strand through your genetic coding. It was switching on some genes and turning off others which was, you know, _concerning_.”

“To put it mildly.” Amanda nodded.

“I don’t to pretend to understand it. Why you were treated with it, let alone how you survived this long with it in your system but…it’s dormant now.”

“Clarify, please.” Sarek demanded after a moment.

“It had been dormant for the last twenty four hours. It has rewritten large tracts of your DNA in minor but…profound ways, but it remains dormant. Unless you are injured.” Hayes blew out a breath, scrubbing a hand through his greying hair, clearly baffled. “I don’t know _how_ but it only activates the genes required for cell regeneration, immune response and healing as required. Then, once the injury is taken care of, it switches off again. I’ll want to carry on monitoring you for some time, Doctor Grayson, but the diagnosis is favourable at this point.”

Amanda blinked. Stunned.

“So…I’m still human?”

“Well…yes and no.” Hayes cocked his head and frowned a little. “It’s not like I have a template for what to look for with strange alien regenerative treatments, but your baseline everything is better. Pulse, respiration, blood pressure, circulation, cell regeneration, any metric I care to look at, you’re operating at peak efficiency. This might not last but…I think you’re going to be better than fine. Even once your system metabolises the chemicals that brought about this change, the alterations have already been made to your genetic code. In short, I think this is you now. Human Plus. I suppose.”

“Oh.” Amanda glanced at Sarek and then frowned at him. “Don’t look so smug.”

“Vulcans are not smug.”

Amanda’s eloquent snort told him what she thought of that and she shook it off. A huge weight had been lifted and she was giddy with it.

“Can I go?”

“Of course. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you.” Hayes nodded, waving to his padd and the data thereon. “Keep the monitor on for now though.”

“Sure thing. Thank you, Doctor.”

“A pleasure. Do try not to walk into any life and death situations between here and the Captain’s ready room though will you?” Hayes grinned for her.

“I’ll do my best.” Amanda shooed Sarek away from the biobed and hopped down.

She beat feet in a hasty retreat before Hayes could change his mind and halted only once she had escaped into the corridor and found her way back to the nearest turbolift. She glanced up at Sarek, still by her side, still looking smug.

“You’re going to be insufferable after this, aren’t you?”

“I think that shall be a matter of opinion.” Sarek gave her the barest hint of a smile and Amanda stepped into the lift as soon as the doors swished open.

“I have to go and see the Captain now.”

“I am aware.”

“I’ll meet you for dinner?”

“Return to my quarters once you are finished with Captain Drahl. Please.”

“It’s a date.” Amanda pushed off the doors and they swished shut behind her.

The stupid grin on her face remained right up until she stepped out onto the bridge.

**_Later…_ **

Amanda entered Sarek’s quarters, the doors swishing apart to welcome her, and she jagged to a halt when confronted with something she hadn’t expected.

A child.

Sybok, it had to be.

Amanda could think of no other reason for the Vulcan Ambassador to Earth to be sitting cross legged on the floor helping a small Vulcan child, whom resembled him strongly, to build towers out of little coloured blocks.

Amanda was still for a long moment, just watching Sarek play with his son. It perhaps wasn’t as effusive as watching a human parent with their child but she could see the strong affection that Sarek had for his boy. Sybok knelt on the floor, his back to Amanda, babbling happily to Sarek in his native language, extolling the virtues of every block as it was added to an increasingly unstable tower.

“Good evening.” Sarek lifted his gaze once the doors had swished shut behind Amanda. His eyes raked over her and Amanda was glad to have taken the time to get changed out of her stupid outfit.

She was dressed simply in more _Arcadia_ issue sweats. Black pants and a white tee, her battered boots having managed to survive being put through the fresher, but she was glad to have gotten rid of the gaudy jewellery and body paint. She felt more herself again.

“Hi.” Amanda remembered herself eventually and started deeper into the room.

Sybok twisted to see her, gazing at her with huge dark eyes so much like his father’s and then his little face broke out into the broadest grin she had ever seen.

Amanda couldn’t help but smile back and he crowed a laugh at being welcomed in such a way. Scrambling to his feet and running towards Amanda, not stopping until he crashed quite solidly into her legs, wrapping his arms over her knees.

“Sybok.” Sarek scolded lightly and pushed to his feet. “Be gentle. This is Amanda. Can you say hello in Standard?”

“Hallo.” Sybok grinned so widely his little nose scrunched and Amanda was _sunk_. “Hallo, Mamanda.”

“Amanda.” Sarek corrected.

“Mamanda!” Sybok was thrilled and Amanda laughed.

“It’s fine, Sarek. Not unusual for little ones to hyper correct when they’re learning new languages. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Vulcan name beginning with a vowel, after all.” Amanda took Sybok’s hands in hers when he thrust them up at her, clearly wanting the attention.

He pressed his little palms to hers and her brows rose when she felt a brush against her mind. He giggled when she managed to return the greeting with a similar one of her own and winked at him.

“This is why your sister in-law came out to see you? To drop him off?” Amanda looked up at Sarek.

“Not…precisely.” Sarek smoothed a hand over Sybok’s hair and was obviously deciding how much to say in front of his son.

“Is there drama in the offing?”

“Perhaps.” Sarek allowed.

“Mamanda! Up!” Sybok tugged on her hands and Amanda reacted without thinking, muscle memory developed by many nieces and nephews. She stooped, hooking her hands under Sybok’s arms and hoisted him up to sit on her hip.

“Good _grief_ , you’re heavy!” Amanda laughed, realising that Vulcan density was no joke, even in the children. “I won’t be able to do this for long.”

Sybok seemed delighted and obviously didn’t understand all of her words but took pretty well to her tone. He clapped his hands onto her face and only made a disappointed sound when Sarek leaned over to carefully peel him away.

“Behave, my son.” Sarek warned in a low tone but there was something terribly indulgent about it. “Is he too heavy?”

“No, but you should probably stop feeding him bricks.” Amanda hoisted Sybok a little higher up, shifting her weight to hold him more easily. “He’s very cute.”

“He is aware, I believe.”

“Like his dad.” Amanda arched a brow at him and rounded Sarek to head towards the low couch. She hadn’t been kidding about Sybok being pretty heavy.

“I resemble this remark.” Sarek turned to watch her sit, settling Sybok on her lap.

His son babbled happily to her in his native language and Amanda responded as if she understood him perfectly, humming and smiling when he did. If Sybok even noticed the language barrier, it was difficult to tell. He chatted happily with Amanda until he wanted down onto the floor again and then he returned to playing with his blocks. Showing Amanda his constructions proudly and telling her all about them.

Amanda sat forward on the couch, elbows on her knees and her chin propped in one hand. She watched Sybok with the faintest smile on her face and Sarek was…relieved that the first meeting had gone so well.

Sarek enjoyed the scene for a moment. He was aware of the ship shifting beneath them. Turning, the droning whine of engines powering. The inertial dampeners kicking in the instant they went to warp. Undoubtedly headed back to Earth now that the _Arcadia’s_ mission had been completed. Ambassador rescued, mystery of the attack that both had and had not happened on Starfleet Headquarters solved.

“He’s so happy.” Amanda glanced at him when Sarek finally stopped staring at her and joined her on the couch.

“He is.”

“And this is…frowned upon? Him showing this emotion?”

“Not at this age. Though T’Vaal, my Sister By Law, insists he is behind in his peers when it comes to the teachings of Surak. She is adamant that he lacks discipline and will never function properly within our society because of his…differences.”

“And this is the woman that has been raising him since the death of his mother?!” Amanda looked askance at Sarek.

“Not. Anymore.” Sarek rumbled and Amanda subsided. “I had been considering how to extricate Sybok from her influence for quite some time but I had never had the opportunity to do so until today.”

“Because you were on a human ship.” Amanda spoke. “You have diplomatic immunity and T’Vaal does not.” Amanda smirked. She seemed inordinately pleased with his cunning.

“I did not know if or when the opportunity might come again so…I seized it.”

“You’re going to have to move out of the Embassy.” Amanda realised. “If you want to keep him, he’ll have to be off Vulcan territory. I presume if T’Vaal outranks you on Vulcan soil or a Vulcan ship, the same rules will apply on the Embassy premises. At least until any legal disagreements are sorted out and custody is firmly yours…” Amanda trailed off, watching Sybok play, her fingers tapping against her lower lip.

Sarek was not privy to the inner workings of her mind, she had learned quickly how to share only what she wished to share with him. She had adapted to the bond better than Sarek had believed possible and with an entirely un-Vulcan view on what constituted personal privacy. Sarek had no need nor desire to change her thought processes, to be where he was not wanted in her mental space but he was… _aware_ that the machinations of her mind might not always be shared with him before she acted. If nothing else, it was going to keep their relationship _interesting_.

Sarek had little doubt that she was already planning on how to make T’Vaal’s life…difficult. He clearly picked up on Amanda’s instant and instinctive dislike for T’Vaal based on actions she had not even witnessed personally. He supposed it made a sense, she had bonded with Sybok almost instantly. Viewing him as she would any child in need of help.

Sarek was…pleased that Amanda was already protective of his son. Considering how fierce she could be when required, Sarek rather imagined that T’Vaal was going to be caught extremely off guard if Amanda decided to involve herself in matters Sybok related.

Still, that was a less immediate problem. They had time yet before T’Vaal could summon the lawyers.

“Indeed. I shall have to find suiting accommodation immediately. Perhaps something in Starfleet. Though I do not know how Sybok will cope with such close quarters with other people. It shall be a learning curve.” Sarek let loose a slow breath, watching as Sybok pushed to his feet, tottering over to Amanda to offer her a red pyramid shaped block.

“Thank you, sweetie. That’s my favourite colour.” Amanda smiled for Sybok and he returned it with a small grin of his own before returning to his game.

Which seemed to be primarily a cycle of building, destruction and renewal. He appeared to enjoy destroying his creations as much as he did making them. Sarek wondered briefly at a deeper meaning and if it might be of concern but Amanda interrupted his thoughts.

“You could stay with me.”

Sarek blinked, unsure if he had heard correctly and turned to see Amanda studiously not looking at him. He cocked his head, wondering if she would repeat herself.

“I mean. If you want to. The house is more than big enough and I’m barely ever there. Consider walking Tank for me and we’ll call it even.”

“Tank, your unusually large canine?”

“He’s of a regular size.” Amanda defended her pet. Continuing in a murmur. “For a horse, maybe.”

“You seem…hesitant with this offer.” Sarek noted.

“Of course I am, you scare the hell out of me. I barely know you and we’re married according to quite a few cultures.” Amanda throttled her fingers together, her jaw clenched. She heaved a sigh. “That being said, I find myself…attached. I’d like to see how it goes. If you’re willing.”

Sarek remained silent until she chanced a look in his direction. He reached up, brushing his fingers through her hair and sweeping it back behind her delicate, rounded, ear.

“Very willing.”

Amanda stared at him for a moment and then nodded jerkily. She sat back on the couch, her arm brushing Sarek’s and let loose a slow breath. She watched Sybok play and wondered how the hell these things happened to her.

“I will not, however, walk the dog.” Sarek said after a moment.

“You’re totally walking the dog.” Amanda smirked.

“I shall require convincing.” Sarek’s hand settled over hers, their fingers lacing together. She felt the brush of his mind against hers and smiled softly at the contact.

“Oh?”

“If you are willing. Of course.”

“Very.” Amanda worried her lower lip with her teeth, her gaze dropping briefly to his mouth before she dragged her attention away to remind herself that Sybok was _right there_. “Very willing.”

“Then I believe we shall be fine.”

Amanda smiled, holding his hand in hers.

She was beginning to believe that too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The End!
> 
> Well, the end of how they met. I don't know if I'll write more pieces in such large chunks of this headcanon of mine, but I have a few ideas of what other fun to have in this pocket universe. I've got a few other Sarek and Amanda stories on the go, but I've not decided on what to do with them yet. 
> 
> Still, thanks so much to everyone hanging in with me for all of their shenanigans. I enjoyed your feedback and delight at having my version of Amanda and Sarek go off on their madcap adventures. Sarek being Long Suffering and Amanda being Hard Work is my favourite dynamic so here we are. 
> 
> Anyways, thanks again for all your lovely feedback. Thank you for reading and letting me know through comments and kudos and I hope y'all come back next time when I write for this pair again. Because they are a LOT of fun. 
> 
> Stay safe and be kind!
> 
> Kisses!


End file.
